US House Vote 228-164 Approve Legislation Decriminalize Marijuana Federal Level

https://www.c-span.org/video/?506855-1/us-house-passes-federal-decriminalization-marijuana-228-164&live=

by DocFeind • 6 years ago

43 26 6 years ago

c-span.org

h2odragon• 6 years ago

Interesting debate; thanks for the cspan link which includes the transcript

raunakdag• 6 years ago

After reading the transcript, I’m in shock that any of the republicans who voted against the bill receive any votes.

The arguments they make are awful: 1) still hammering in the nonsense about gateway drugs, 2) comparing marijuana to the opioid epidemic, and 3) saying that marijuana causes more societal damage than alcohol.

It’s disappointing that our legislators are unable to make any forwards progress even in the 21st century.

axxxo93• 6 years ago

It's about time! There is no reason a drug that is considerably less harmful than alcohol should be criminalized to such a high degree.

toomuchtodo• 6 years ago

Unlikely to pass in the Senate due to many Congressional reps who don't believe in decriminalization. Has a chance depending on the Georgia runoff results in January. Would still be helpful to come up for a Senate vote to know who you're up against. Still progress to have the vote and pass in the House.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/04/lega...

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942949288/house-approves-decr...

pm902• 6 years ago

A smart move for Democrats would be to hammer Republicans on their reluctance to pass this bill in the Republican controlled Senate (Marijuana legalization polls extremely well nationally) before the GA runoffs.

hajile• 6 years ago

Lots of republicans think it should be left up to the state. Their major issue with the last bill was tons of "social justice" riders. Democrats couldn't risk Republicans passing the bill and looking good before the presidential election, so instead they added a ton of stuff that was guaranteed to sink the bill. They then pushed the "republicans hate pot" narrative on news and social media.

This seems likely to be so much more politicking.

iaHN2• 6 years ago

"You want to know what this was really all about?

The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

- John Ehrlichman, Richard Nixon's aide on domestic affairs:

mikestew3• 6 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878445

Whereby I say in response to someone questioning the source of that quote: "That's the best you're going to find, some journalist's reminiscence twenty-some years after the fact. So I would caution anyone to be wary of whipping that quote out to make a point."

Until I hear of a better source (and I won't), I am putting this quote in the "urban legend" bucket. All that's missing is an attribution to Mark Twain.

iaHN2• 6 years ago

Is this journalist untrustworthy?

wmeredith• 6 years ago

This quote was questioned and outright called a fabrication or misinterpretation by three other Nixon aides who worked alongside John Ehrlichman.

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-nixon-drug-war-john-e...

gnusty_gnurc• 6 years ago

Let's not forget the Progressive history with Prohibition.

We know practically everyone outside small-l libertarians is gung-ho about prohibitions and the regulating and criminalization of everyday life.

zxcvbn4038• 6 years ago

NYC stopped enforcing marijuana laws years ago (unless your a minority or on their radar for other things) - you can walk down the street smoking a joint in midtown and nobody will bother you, walk by restaurants where it’s clearly being smoked in bulk and nobody is stopping it, smell it heavy on people’s clothing on the subway and nobody is hindering them.

The first thing I notice when traveling abroad, or even to other cities in the US including ones that have legalized marijuana officially, is the lack of marijuana smell. The first few days of the COVID lockdown the air quality in Manhattan was amazing between the lack of traffic and people smoking - imagine Wyoming or Montana except you can smell the ocean - I had never experienced that here before.

So on one hand I’m glad they are considering legalization so that the police don’t target people unfairly, but on the other hand I can tell already that people are going to abuse this and mess it up. The politicians are going to start taxing the bejesus out of the stuff to curtail its use, and that is going to push people to cheaper/illegal alternatives, and the cycle will repeat itself.

cwhiz3• 6 years ago

I buy weed from dealers in NYC. It’s all imported from California. It’s substantially more expensive than buying it from a vendor in legal state. I bought six vape cartridges a couple of weeks ago for $250.

All that to say, it’s already being taxed. It’s just that NYC isn’t getting the revenue. If NYC does ever legalize it and taxes the hell out of it, I still bet I end up paying less.

I’m sure I could find a cheaper dealer but I trust these dealers and the quality is excellent.

Throwaway17712• 6 years ago

Those aren't real, regulated Cali vape pens. Sorry.

US House Vote 228-164 Approve Legislation Decriminalize Marijuana Federal Level

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