The House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday that would decriminalize possession of marijuana at a federal level, sending it to the Senate.
The bill passed by a vote of 220 to 204, with three Republicans—Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Brian Mast (R-Mich.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)—joining Democrats to pass the bill.
The bill would make it no longer a violation of federal law to possess marijuana.
The bill was put forward by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and would, among other measures, allow those who have used marijuana to gain security clearance, permit the Veterans’ Administration to prescribe cannabis for medical and mental health reasons, and would allow the federal government to place a sales tax on sales of marijuana.
At the time of publication, only 12 states in the United States do not legally allow the use of marijuana. Those states that do allow it have various approaches to handling the controversial drug, which remains illegal at a federal level. Many states have permitted the medical use of marijuana, while a handful of others have legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.
Now that it has passed the House, the bill will need to make it through the Senate in order to reach President Joe Biden’s desk. However, it will be much harder for proponents to push the legislation through the equally-divided upper chamber, where a bill must receive 60 votes to end debate and go to a simple majority floor vote.
Many Republicans, as well as their voters, remain opposed to the legalization of marijuana in any capacity.
Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) spoke against the bill.
“What’s deeply and truly disturbing, however, about this bill 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 percent 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. Bob Good (R-Va.) told NTD’s Capitol Report that “the last thing we need is more people using addictive, behavior-altering, recreational drugs.
“You think about all the crises affecting our nation—including the rise in violent crime and the fentanyl coming across our border and the massive number of overdoses, 100,000 Americans dying of overdoses last year—and what we want to do, the Democrat priority is to respond with legalizing marijuana, which as we know will reduce the stigma, have more people experiment with it.
“It’s the gateway drug,” he added. “And obviously, more children end up using marijuana as a result.”
Efforts spearheaded by Senate Democrats to pass similar legislation have stagnated, and are not widely expected to have enough support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
President Joe Biden has indicated in the past that he would sign such a bill if it came to his desk.
Joseph Lord contributed to this report.
