House GOP whiffs on chance to overturn racist cannabis past

House Democrats easily passed legislation to end federal prohibition of cannabis, with little help from House Republicans. Just 5 of 163 Republicans joined the 222 Dems (6 voted NO) to redress 83 years of essentially racist enforcement against cannabis that snared millions, a majority black and brown, helping devastate communities of color for nine decades. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act will remove cannabis from the federal list of illegal drugs, begin the expunging of non-violent federal marijuana convictions, and funnel tax revenue from legal cannabis sales to disadvantaged communities disproportionally targeted cannabis drug arrests.

State prohibition against cannabis began in 1906, eventually encompassing all fifty states. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act criminalized it federally for the past 83 years. Prohibition Czar Henry Anslinger, needed a new bete noir to further his career when booze became legal again in 1933. He turned to cannabis, a drug first popularized by Mexican immigrants fleeing to the U.S. from political unrest in Mexico. Anslinger and his racist cohorts expanded this scenario to include blacks, creating a scare campaign that cannabis would ensnare young whites to crime, madness, suicide and sexual exploitation. It worked brilliantly as nine decades on we’re still trying to extricate America from the scourge imposed on largely minority communities. Blacks are still arrested at over three times the rate of whites.

Tho legal in 36 states for medical purposes and 15 states recreationally, 14 states still maintain total prohibition on cannabis. The MORE Act will nationalize a sane, racially redemptive policy that will create national healing. Alas, MORE is D.O.A. in the Republican controlled Senate. Come January 6, with a lot of hard campaigning and a little luck in Georgia, Vice President Kamala Harris, who introduced the Senate version, can break the 50-50 tie in favor of MORE without needing a single GOP vote. That, not cannabis, is the best way to get high in 2021.