On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to decriminalize marijuana possession at the federal level.
The House heard a number of suggested changes to the bill, including ones that would track and prohibit driving while impaired by marijuana as well as exceptions that would allow law enforcement to reorganize itself around the drug’s decriminalization.
Voting was 220 to 204 in favor of passing the bill.
Matt Gaetz of Florida, Tom McClintock of California, and Brian Mast of Florida were the three Republicans that cast a “yes” vote. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Henry Cuellar of Texas, both Democrats, abstained.
Without initially giving the information into the potential consequences of the decriminalization, Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., argued against the bill citing potential increases in drunk driving. Before the bill is passed, according to Bentz, the pertinent information should be disclosed.
Bentz stated on the floor, “It’s been evident for years that at some point marijuana was going to be fully legalized.
Cannabis is the most widely abused substance in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
48.2 million Americans, or nearly 18% of the population, used it at least once in 2019, according to the organization.
What’s deeply and truly alarming about this bill, Bentz continued, “is its failure to address the clear consequences of legalization, such as what this drug does to children, to drivers on our highways, to the mental health of up to 30% of those adults who choose to use marijuana, to communities inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign cartel operated, unlicensed out of control marijuana grows.”
Rep. Conor Lamb, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, spoke in favor of the decriminalization bill, but Bentz disagreed. Lamb mentioned his stint working as Pittsburgh’s assistant attorney general.
“I worked as a federal prosecutor in my hometown of Pittsburgh before entering politics. And the two biggest problems facing law enforcement both then and now are opiate abuse and gun violence “Lamb said.
In comparison to those two things, Lamb said, “marijuana just didn’t register in terms of the harm that it posed to individuals on a daily basis. “Yet it is very simple for a marijuana offense to actually result in a worse sentence than an opioid offense like over prescribing OxyContin or selling fentanyl or a firearm,” says the author. “This is because of the way the federal criminal laws are written in the way that cannabis is placed in schedule one.”
The timing of the marijuana measure outraged Rep. Jim Jordan, who claimed that issues like crime, inflation, and illegal immigration should take precedence.
“Record levels of violence, inflation, petrol costs, and illegal immigration at our southern border. What are Democrats doing right now, then?” Jordan enquired on the ground. “legalizing drugs, legalizing drugs, and utilizing tax monies from the United States to launch and support the marijuana sector Wow. Such a good deal for Americans.”
