Nope to Dope Reform? – Update for October 24, 2022 | Legal Information Services Associates LLC

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

EVERYBODY’S TALKIN’ AT ME…

With mid-term elections – where control of both the House and Senate are in play – upon us, voters across the country can’t escape the deluge of candidates talking about how extreme their opponents are, how inflation, crime and taxes are out of control… In fact, they’re talking at us about everything.

Everything except criminal justice reform. The only mention that incarcerated people have been getting are occasional disingenuous attacks on incumbents who “vot[ed] to send COVID-19 stimulus checks to people who are incarcerated.” No one is talking about changing drug policy, even about the easiest lift, marijuana reform.

A recent Brookings Institution study found that 86% of Congressional candidates “either made no mention, staked out an unclear position, or explicitly opposed cannabis reform.” The report concluded that “most candidates for federal office do not see cannabis as an issue prominent enough to discuss, and deep partisan differences still remain among elected officials, even as support for cannabis in the general public has exploded in recent years. And the true motivator for a member of Congress to take or change a position — whether voters hold their feet to the fire over an issue — has not yet become a reality in the vast majority of Congressional races across the United States.”

This does not bode well for the MORE Act – already passed by the House – which must be passed by the Senate before the end of December. Any pending bill not passed by then disappears with the end of the 117th Congress. The 118th Congress begins in January with no bills in the hopper, meaning that measures like the EQUAL Act (S.79) and MORE Act (H.R. 3617) – as well as anything else pending – must start over.

The NAACP’s board of directors approved a resolution last Thursday calling for the “immediate passage” of a marijuana banking bill and expressing support for decriminalizing cannabis. The vice chair of the NAACP Board group is specifically directing the message at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has held up House-passed legislation on the issue.

However, while NAACP backs ending marijuana prohibition, it wants Congress to use the bipartisan momentum behind incremental reform and quickly pass the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, H.R. 1996, which has already cleared the House.

At this point, Biden’s order to federal agencies to review marijuana’s Schedule I status may provide a quicker path to decriminalization. The Dept of Justice and Dept of Health and Human Services have committed to expeditiously carrying out the scientific review, which could result in a recommendation to schedule marijuana at a lower level or remove it altogether, effectively legalizing the plant.

Inimai Chettiar of the Justice Action Network wrote in Newsweek last week that “Congress could classify marijuana as a much lower scheduled drug, effectively reducing criminal penalties. Better yet, it could decriminalize marijuana and leave the issue to the states. Both steps have strong bipartisan support among lawmakers and voters alike.”

Unfortunately, translating public support into Senate action – even on EQUAL and MORE – in the brief period between mid-term elections and the end of the year is a tall order. And if the next Congress has one or both Houses controlled by Republicans, you can pretty much write off Congressional cooperation with a Democrat in the White House.