Congress are you listening? Majority of Americans want marijuana legalized

Fortunately, the U.S. House Friday did something about the biggest current disconnect in American politics, passing a bill to remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s naughty list.

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Editorials

April 4, 2022 - 4:31 PM

Eighteen states all over the physical and political map, including California, Arizona, Virginia, Michigan, Montana, Illinois, Oregon, Nevada, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, now permit the recreational use of cannabis, opting to regulate and collect taxes from adult use of the substance rather than continue to treat it as a problem to be contained through cops, courts, jails and prisons. Thirty-seven states have made medical marijuana legal. Yet the federal government still lists the weed as a Schedule I narcotic “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” classifying it among the most dangerous substances in America.

Anyone who isn’t under the influence can see there’s something very, very wrong with this picture.

Fortunately, the U.S. House Friday did something about the biggest current disconnect in American politics, passing a bill — authored, we’re proud to say, by New York’s own Jerry Nadler — to remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s naughty list; impose a 5% tax, which would rise to 8%, on cannabis products; let some pot convictions get expunged; and urge review of sentencing for weed-related crimes — while making small businesses that sell the weed eligible for federal loans and services for which any other enterprise can apply.

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