The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, a bill to federally legalize, commercialize, and tax the use of marijuana, was re-introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Jerry Nadler.
Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration, released the following statement in response to the introduction of the bill:
“As we have said since the initial introduction of this short-sighted bill two years ago, the MORE Act is a complete non-starter and the wrong approach we need when it comes to federal drug policy. This bill would fully legalize marijuana; it will not simply decriminalize the drug — which would only remove criminal penalties for possession. Rather, it’s nothing less than the wide-scale commercialization and normalization of a drug that does not resemble the old marijuana of the 1970s. The MORE Act allows for unlimited THC potency, tax breaks to pot companies for advertising, and the end of safety-sensitive drug testing for transportation workers as we know it.
“At the state level, lawmakers and the public are dialing back on the laissez-faire approach to marijuana. Limits on THC potency and strict restrictions on advertising have been put in place in states such as Vermont and Montana, and efforts to do so are even taking place in Colorado. We cannot allow our federal lawmakers to fall victim to the false promises of Big Pot and their Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol, and Big Pharma investors and lobbyists.”