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WASHINGTON — Efforts to legalize marijuana gained a major boost Wednesday when the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would end the federal ban on cannabis.
The bill also would take steps to address the disproportionate effect on minority communities from the federal war on drugs, which led to a sharp increase in incarceration among blacks for marijuana offenses.
“These steps are long overdue,” said the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., “For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of a matter of personal choice and public health. Whatever one’s views on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes, arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating users at the federal level is unwise and unjust.”
The vote was 24-10. Two Republicans, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Tom McClintock of California, joined every committee Democrat in voting yes.
The committee vote came a few days after New Jersey legislative leaders abandoned their effort to legalize marijuana for recreational use and instead agreed to ask voters to decide in a referendum next year.
The packed room heard Democrats discuss the importance of repairing the damage to minority communities as a result of arrests and imprisonment for using marijuana, while most Republicans advocated a more narrow focus in order to increase bipartisan support and possibly encourage the Senate to act.
The legislation would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, thus allowing states to decide whether to legalize cannabis, giving banks the ability to offer credit cards and checking accounts to legal cannabis businesses, and making it easier to study any medicinal benefits of pot.
It would require federal courts to expunge prior marijuana convictions, tax marijuana to fund job training and other programs and to provide loans to minority-owned small businesses wanting to enter the cannabis industry, and help communities hardest hit by the war on drugs and subsequent arrests for marijuana use.
There’s still a long way to go, though. Several other committees have jurisdiction over parts of the measure, though Nadler said he was hopeful that those panels would agree to speed the bill to the House floor.
House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said he would allow a vote, drawing a contrast with his predecessor, Texas Republican Pete Sessions, who blocked votes on all marijuana-related legislation. McGovern’s state has legalized marijuana for recreational use.
“Unlike my predecessor, I’m moving cannabis legislation to the floor," McGovern told NJ Advance Media.
If it passes the House, the Senate would have to vote on it, where approval is less likely in the face of Republican opposition.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said a truly bipartisan bill, which the Nadler measure was not, would put pressure on the Senate to act.
“This is one issue that I think we have overwhelming bipartisan support,” Buck said. “The right bill would pass the House in a way that would demand Senate action.”
Nadler disagreed. “If we think a bill is the best bill, we should pass that bill and then negotiate with the Senate,” he said.
The Judiciary Committee is the panel that will draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, and the ranking Republican, Doug Collins of Georgia, suggested that the time might be better spent watching the House Intelligence Committee hearings rather than debating marijuana.
He complained that there have been no hearings on the bill and it doesn’t have the support to become law.
“The question is: Do we want to accomplish something or do we want to simply make a political statement?” Collins said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said the committee should act as soon as possible. “We do have a crisis that we’re digging out of,” she said.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who first introduced legislation in 2017 to end the federal ban on marijuana and help communities hardest hit by the war on drugs, welcomed the House committee vote.
“The war on drugs has systematically targeted people of color and the poor, harmed job prospects and access to housing for our nation’s most vulnerable communities, and destroyed countless lives,” said Booker, D-N.J., a co-sponsor of the Senate version of Nadler’s bill.
"The House Judiciary Committee’s decision to advance this bill is a significant step toward righting these wrongs and healing the wounds of decades of injustice.”
The legislation is known as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
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