WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI) today voted against the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. He released the following statement:
“While I support the federal decriminalization of marijuana, the MORE Act is not the right approach to such a large and important policy shift. Federal action on marijuana decriminalization should take steps to rectify the current statutory inconsistency between federal and state policies and ultimately allow states to regulate for themselves. The MORE Act does not include a federal regulatory structure for marijuana, like we have for alcohol, and this would ultimately leave it up to federal agencies to dictate regulations – and these agencies could override state regulations and implement their own policies on a whim.
“On the other hand, the States Reform Act, which I introduced with four of my colleagues, federally decriminalizes marijuana and also includes critical provisions that were left out of the MORE Act, including explicitly deferring to states’ authority to pass their own laws regarding marijuana. I’d hoped that by introducing the States Reform Act, we would open the door for good faith, bipartisan negotiations on how to address this longstanding issue thoughtfully and effectively. The MORE Act as it is currently written is not expected to be taken up by the Senate, so this is more of an exercise in political messaging than a substantive policy response to decriminalizing marijuana.”
Original source can be found here.
