Rolling Stone, July 23, 2019: Sen. Kamala Harris introduces law to federally legalize, tax marijuana
On Tuesday, Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced that she is teaming up with House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler to co-sponsor the MORE Act of 2019, a bill that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level and expunge low-level marijuana possession convictions. If enacted, the bill would also provide grants to members of communities of color, in an attempt to reverse decades of damage that cannabis criminalization has done to those communities.
Currently, 33 states have legalized medicinal marijuana, while 11 states plus D.C. have made it legal for people over the age of 18 to buy marijuana for recreational purposes. The MORE Act would not only decriminalize marijuana on the federal level, it would also authorize a 5% federal sales tax on marijuana to create a trust fund for three grant programs, which would provide services to the “individuals most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs,” as well as loans for small businesses in the cannabis industry owned by people of color.
The bill is unique in part because of the sales tax to support the trust fund, thus taking the onus off American taxpayers and increasing the likelihood for bipartisan support when it’s introduced into the house, says Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, calling it “the most comprehensive and workable legislation that has ever been introduced.” While it’s unique for being the first bill introduced by a House Judiciary chair in support of marijuana reform, Nadler has a record of supporting such legislation: one of the first votes he ever cast as a freshman member of the state Assembly in New York in 1977 was a state decriminalization bill.
