The House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties introduced on Nov. 8 that on Nov. 15 it could be holding a listening to to debate hashish legalization. The listening to’s official title was “Developments in State Cannabis Laws and Bipartisan Cannabis Reforms at the Federal Level,” and a joint memo was published on Nov. 12 to put out the speaking factors of the dialogue.
The listening to was led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (Chairman of the Subcommittee) and Rep. Nancy Mace (Rating Member of the Subcommittee), and accompanied by questions from Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rep. Peter Anderson Periods of Texas, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, Rep. Brian Higgins of New York, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (Delegate to the U.S. Home of Representatives representing the District of Columbia), Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, and Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois.
Witness audio system included Randal Woodfin (Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama), Paul Armentano (Deputy Director of NORML), Andrew Freedman (Government Director of Coalition for Hashish Coverage, Schooling, and Regulation [CPEAR]), Eric Goepel (Founder and CEO of Veterans Hashish Coalition), Keeda Haynes (Senior Authorized Advisor of Free Hearts, who linked remotely), Amber Littlejohn (Senior Coverage Advisor of International Alliance for Hashish Commerce, and Jillian Snider (Coverage Director of Prison Justice & Civil Liberties).
The dialogue coated all kinds of details revolving round hashish legalization, the failed Warfare on Medicine, how Biden’s October announcement to pardon federal hashish convictions requires state motion to assist folks, the therapy of veterans who search aid with hashish, the potential of hemp as a constructing materials (and the authorized challenges linked to this).
NORML’s Armentano supplied many highly effective details and statements concerning legalization and the way the hashish business has affected black and brown folks. “By descheduling hashish, tens of hundreds of thousands of People who reside in states the place hashish is authorized in some kind, in addition to the a whole lot of hundreds of people that work for the state-licensed business that companies them, will now not face unnecessary hurdles and discrimination—reminiscent of an absence of entry to monetary companies, loans, insurance coverage, 2nd Modification rights, tax deductions, sure skilled safety clearances, and different privileges,” Armentano mentioned.
R Road Institute’s Snider added that the nation’s strategy to legalization is messy as a result of various ranges of regulation. “Proposed federal laws signifies elevated help for alternate options to federal hashish prohibition, and this elevated help is essential to supply readability on the general authorized standing of hashish, as the present scenario presents inconsistency and a quasi-legal conundrum,” Snider mentioned. “The substance could also be authorized in a single state and decriminalized in one other, however as a result of it’s nonetheless prohibited on the federal degree, customers or possessors of the substance are topic to prison penalty.”
Towards the later portion of the listening to, Raskin requested Armentano about his hope that Congress can come collectively to make legalization a actuality. “So Mr. Armentano, do you suppose Congress can meet up with the place a majority of the states are actually by way of medical marijuana and decriminalization and legalization, as [Mayor Woodfin] mentioned. Do you suppose Congress will really have the ability to do it? I do know this listening to is a promising signal, however what do you suppose are the probabilities of really doing this, on this session of congress or the following?”
Armentano replied, explaining that traditionally prohibition has by no means labored, whether or not you study the historical past of alcohol prohibition, or that of hashish. “Effectively my enterprise card doesn’t say prognosticator, however one would hope that members of congress see the necessity to act swiftly,” Armentano explained. “Look, to make use of your analogy with alcohol prohibition, the federal authorities received out of the alcohol prohibition enterprise when 10 states selected to go down a special path. Nearly all of U.S. states have now chosen to go down a special path with hashish and is untenable to maintain this chasm going between the place the states are on this coverage and the place the federal authorities is. On the finish of the day the federal authorities wants to return to a method to comport federal coverage with state coverage, and that’s by descheduling.”
Mace and Raskin supplied conclusory statements based mostly on what they heard throughout the listening to, and what they hope it’s going to result in within the very close to future.
Mace condemned an earlier reference evaluating hashish to slavery. She addressed information that exhibits how black and brown individuals are 4 occasions extra prone to be arrested for hashish, and that its as much as congress on each side to handle this problem. “I’m from South Carolina the place the distinction between wealthy and poor is usually black and white, and hashish is an space the place we are able to work collectively on each side of the aisle to ban extra of these inequities from taking place throughout our nation and proper the wrongs which have been occurring for many years now,” Mace said. “And I’d encourage my colleagues, Republican and Democrat on each side of the aisle, to get on board with this problem. The American individuals are asking for it. Seventy % of People help medical hashish. Half, or greater than half, help grownup or leisure use throughout the nation, whether or not they come from the purple state of South Carolina to the blue state of California. East coast to west coast. People from all communities, all colours, all ages, help this problem. The one place it’s controversial is right here within the halls of the capital, and it’s fallacious.”
Chairman Raskin concluded the listening to along with his personal assertion, addressing the necessity for motion from Congress. “Congress must catch up, and that’s what this listening to is about and that’s what I’ve discovered right this moment. If we knew our historical past higher, if all of us took the time to learn into prohibition, we might see that America has been via this earlier than. And it’s not that alcohol is like birthday cake, it’s not. We lose greater than 100,000 folks a 12 months to alcohol-related sicknesses, to alcohol-related fatalities on the highways, that must be regulated,” Raskin said.
“However the nation had its expertise with making an attempt to criminalize alcohol. It didn’t work, and it brought about rather more extreme issues and we all know that’s exactly the historical past we’re dwelling via right this moment, once more, with marijuana, it must be regulated, it must be rigorously managed, however we shouldn’t be throwing folks into jail for any time period for sooner or later as a result of they smoke marijuana. It is unnecessary. We shouldn’t be ruining folks’s lives over this. I believe the nation has made its judgment, it’s time for Congress to catch up.”