Many of those eligible for forgiveness have suffered numerous lost opportunities over the years because of a lingering conviction for behavior that most Americans no longer believe should be a crime. They should not have to continue to wait for relief any longer.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated the President’s position that cannabis should be rescheduled under federal law to Schedule II rather than descheduled from the Controlled Substances Act… Tonight, President Biden will be delivering his first major address to Congress and to the American people to discuss his vision and priorities for the rest of his first presidential term.
“I’m exceedingly grateful to have the support of NORML PAC,” Lt. Governor John Fetterman said. “The bottom line here is it’s far past time we let go of this bizarre superstition and criminalization of a plant, cannabis, and instead legalize it on a federal level.”
“It is mind-boggling that the federal government is revisiting this half-baked proposal now. The idea of proposing a testing procedure that will inherently deny more people of color opportunities than it would others who have engaged in exactly the same activities is beyond tone deaf and counterproductive.”
House lawmakers are preparing for a September floor vote on legislation – The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act a/k/a The MORE Act — to remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act. The forthcoming vote would mark the first time since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which placed cannabis in the same category as heroin as a Schedule I controlled substance, that a Congressional chamber has voted to remove marijuana from its prohibitive classification.
Voters in several states will have the opportunity to decide at the ballot whether to legalize cannabis for either adult-use or for medical purposes. In addition, numerous local, state, and federal races involve candidates who have made marijuana legalization a key part of their platform.
Jimmy Carter was the first US President ever to endorse the decriminalization of marijuana, first during his 1976 campaign and again in 1977 in a statement to Congress — which I helped to draft
NORML is skeptical that this proposed recommendation will bring about the sort of tangible marijuana policy changes that voters have consistently demanded — in national polls and at the ballot box.