The United States House of Representatives Approved a Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana at the Federal Level

The Lower House of the United States approved this Friday the ‘More Act’, a bill with which marijuana is decriminalized at the federal level by removing it from the list of prohibited controlled substances , although it must still be debated by the Senate.

The initiative, presented by the president of the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, Jerrold Nadler -a Democrat from New York-, had 220 votes in favor and 204 votes against , according to various US media reports.

Democrats argued that outlawing marijuana has had “particularly devastating consequences for minority communities,” who are “four times more likely” than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though they use it at similar rates. , as explained this Friday in Congress by the majority leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer.

“These criminal records can persecute people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives indefinitely,” Hoyer assured in the session of the US Lower House, according to ‘USA Today’.

For their part, Republicans who have opposed the measure argued that marijuana “is a gateway drug that would lead to greater use of opioids and other dangerous substances.” In addition, they have argued that the marijuana sold today “is much more powerful than the one that was sold decades ago”, something that would generate “greater deterioration for those who consume it”, according to the Fox network.

In the United States, cannabis is legal for adult use in 19 states, and for medical use in 36 states. If this bill goes ahead in the Senate, it would end the federal ban, but leave legalization up to the states, according to Forbes magazine. In December 2020, the US Lower House already approved a similar measure, although it remained without the approval of the Senate.

Recently, the leader of the Democrats in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, positioned himself in an interview with Efe in favor of “legalizing” cannabis and argued that this measure will help bring justice to African-American and Hispanic minorities, jailed in a disproportionate by the possession of that substance.

Schumer is one of the few US political leaders who has spoken out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, whose recreational use is legal in 18 of the country’s 50 states while another 37 allow medical use, although at the federal level the prohibition.

“I am now in favor of legalization. And I hope we can get it,” said the Democratic leader. Schumer referred to the experiment that began in the US years ago with the legalization of marijuana in a few states, such as Oregon and Colorado, and the criticism that this movement aroused due to the fear that crime or drug use would increase.

“All that did not happen and there was freedom for the people who wanted to consume it. And there were no such bad effects, “said Schumer, who in 2018 presented for the first time a bill to decriminalize marijuana.