The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill decriminalizing marijuana on a federal level, The New York Times reports, noting the bill is likely doomed in the Senate.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act passed 220-204, with Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fl.), Brian Mast (Fl.), and Tom McClintock (Calif.) joining in with the Democrats, the Times notes. The bill removes cannabis from the federal government's list of controlled substances, levies an 8 percent tax on marijuana products, allows some cannabis-related convictions to be expunged, and urges "sentencing reviews at the federal and state levels," the Times notes. Small Business Administration Loans would also be made available to cannabis businesses.
Notably, when speaking during Friday's vote, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) quite comically called out a separate drug-related issue, this one involving freshman lawmaker Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and his claims of Washington, D.C. orgies and cocaine use.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After calling into question the GOP's "paranoid tropes" of marijuana use, Raskin remarked that "our party is not for the kind of cocaine-fueled orgies that a freshman Republican representative bragged about this week," he said, alluding to Cawthorn. "But we do understand that their marijuana prohibition laws don't work for our people."
In the controversial remarks to which Raskin is referring, Cawthorn had claimed he'd been invited to orgies at the homes of D.C. insiders and watched leaders in the anti-drug movement doing key bumps of cocaine. The North Carolina lawmaker has since admitted his comments were exaggerated.
Afterward, Raskin's jab got a warm reception online.
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crimeSpeed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oilSpeed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymanderSpeed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
