Friday, December 4, 2020

It’s the last day of the first week of the last month of the year. So let’s concentrate on a positive development. However, with all things, there’s good news and there’s bad news. That’s just how life is, y’all.

This morning quite unexpectedly, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the MORE Act, or the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act. In a nutshell, the bill would remove marijuana from the schedule of illegal drugs established by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. For a little background, Nixon and the GOP got that through to crack down on Vietnam protestors and it had pot as a Schedule One, which meant no redeeming medical qualities. Cocaine is a Schedule Two, which means it has redeeming medical qualities, so the past 50 years the federal government has put reefer in the same danger zone as heroin or crystal meth.

Anyhow, the bill passed 228-164 pretty much along party lines. Five Republicans and Independent Justin Amish voted for the bill while six Democrats voted against it. Those votes really aren’t that surprising, coming from most Blue Dogs from conservative districts. It was a fairly easy vote as the Republicans spent most of their time criticizing the other party for even bringing it up.

Initially put forth by New York’s Jerry Nadler last year, the bill passed out of committee in 2019 and was scheduled to hit the House floor this summer. However, a September vote was postponed in part due to COVID-19 and in part due to a bit of political chickenshittery on the Democrats’ part. But that’s politics for you.

Now, apart from the rescheduling issue, the MORE Act will also set aside a 5% tax on profits that will go to areas most affected by the War on Drugs. There’s also hope that it would lead to a situation when nonviolent drug offenders would have their records expunged. If anyone tells you that the war on pot isn’t geared to screw over people of color, they’re lying to you.

This past election, five states – including my own home Mississippi – voted to change their pot laws. While we legalized medical marijuana, five others voted to legalize recreational use. That brings the sum total to 35 states and the District of Columbia where pot is in some form legal. In 14 states, recreational use is legal and, for the most part, a decent business.

However, despite the states’ decision, they were still running against federal law. MORE rectifies that, as well as setting up legalization as one of the next things the Senate will have to face when they take their seats next month. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris has a similar bill floating around the Senate.

And therein lies the rub. Senate capo Mitch McConnell took some time out from deep-frying babies to announce that he wouldn’t allow the Senate to even vote on the MORE Act when it came to his desk. That’s pretty much how he deals with anything he doesn’t like. The Senate is a bit more conservative than the House and it’s controlled by the GOP, so a party-line vote would sink it anyway.

But it might not. Pot legalization or at least decriminalization has garnered massive amounts of popularity over the past decade. Here in Mississippi, Initiative 65 passed by almost two-thirds of the vote. Medical officials and law enforcement groups are split in how much they approve or disapprove of it, but the public is overwhelmingly in favor of it. The last Pew Research poll had two-thirds of the country in favor of it. Some folks are saying that had Trump supported legalization, it might have saved his campaign.

It’s also gained popularity with the younger set of national politicians. Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who’s made news recently with his no-bullshit approach to the Trump goon squad crying about their loss, has been a particularly fierce advocate of legalization. This vote will let the public know who stands where on the issue. Even in the Senate, a combination of recreational and medical use outnumbers keeping it illegal.

This makes the January 5th Senate runoff that much more important. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are going up against the criminal David Perdue and the sleazy Kelly Loeffler, respectively, and both gentlemen are in favor of decriminalization. Even more importantly, if both men win it would break the Republican’s hold on the Senate and run McConnell’s ass out of the head chair. Someone else would get the gig, once they fumigate and sterilize it, and it might be the first time in 50 years the United States government took on the issue.

And if the GOP loses the Senate and the bill gets passed, there’s a better than average chance President-elect Joe Biden will sign it into law. While he rightfully faced criticism for legislation that came down hard on offenders, he has embraced decriminalization. Plus, say what you want, but Biden is a sharp politician and I don’t doubt he’ll make a smart call on this one.

Again, though, nothing is written in stone and while it’s encouraging that the MORE Act passed, there’s still a long way to go. Even with Initiative 65 passing, I’m still not convinced the state government won’t do all it can to make it untenable rather than doing the smart thing. And on a personal note, it’s been almost a year since I’ve had a bit of the good smoke and I’d damn near slit someone’s throat for a joint. All you people who live in legal states shouldn’t complain about a damn thing.