[Daily Mail] House votes to decriminalize marijuana and expunge federal pot convictions, letting states set own laws - but move will be killed by Republican Senate
- Democratic controlled House votes 228-164 to end federal criminalization of marijuana
- That would mean states set and enforce laws on their own - and remove it from drugs dealt with by DEA and other federal agencies
- Federal marijuana convictions would be expunged and a 5% sales tax imposed on it
- But Republicans in Senate will not take up bill so move is dead for now
- House also voted to ban private lion and tiger ownership - a move campaigned for by Carole Baskin from Tiger King documentary
- That measure too appears unlikely to be taken up by Senate and Republican Ted Cruz said Democrats want to 'prosecute tiger king' rather than deal with COVID
- Tiger king Joe Exotic is in fact already a federal prisoner after a successful prosecution brought by a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor
The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters called a failed policy of criminalization of pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws.
Supporters say the pot bill would help reverse adverse effects of the decades-long 'war on drugs' by removing marijuana, or cannabis, from the list of federally controlled substances while allowing states to set their own rules on pot.
The bill, which passed 228-164, now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely to advance. |