— The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The bill also expunges the record of people convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, "can haunt people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives and career indefinitely." Senate Democrats have a similar legalization bill in the upper chamber, but neither that bill nor the House-passed MORE Act is expected to clear the 60-vote threshold for passage in the Senate. "It also addresses the injustices of it because of what penalties had been before some of these, this decriminalization took place," she added. A similar bill was passed in December 2020, and was championed in the House by the late Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who was a co-founder of the House Cannabis Caucus, but died last month before the bill made it to the floor for another vote.

Source: CNN April 01, 2022 16:41 UTC