Reps. Case, Kahele Vote To Legalize Marijuana

The House bill now moves to the Senate where passage is unclear.

By /

The U.S. House of Representatives, The Hill and other news outlets reported, passed legislation on Friday to legalize marijuana nationwide “and eliminate the longstanding criminal penalties for anyone who distributes or possesses it.”

The report was largely along party lines in the 220-204 vote.

U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele, both Democrats from Hawaii, voted “yea” on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act.

The measure now goes to the U.S. Senate, where “it’s not clear a bill to broadly legalize marijuana could clear the necessary 60 votes to advance in the Senate.” Democrats have a very narrow majority.

A similar pot legalization bill passed in December 2020, but the Senate — controlled by Republicans at the time — did not take action.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who introduced the bill, said on Friday that the MORE Act is “long overdue legislation that would reverse decades of failed federal policies based on the criminalization of marijuana.”

What it means to support Civil Beat.

Supporting Civil Beat means you’re investing in a newsroom that can devote months to investigate corruption. It means we can cover vulnerable, overlooked communities because those stories matter. And, it means we serve you. And only you.

Donate today and help sustain the kind of journalism Hawaiʻi cannot afford to lose.

Donate

About the Author