The US House of Representatives passed by a majority vote a bill to decriminalize marijuana nationwide. This was reported on Friday, December 4, by NBC TV channel .
The bill now has to pass Senate and President approval.
The project excludes marijuana from the list of prohibited substances, allows you to develop business in this area and receive doctors’ appointments for drug use for medical purposes. If the Senate and the President pass the law, all previous court sentences for marijuana use or possession, in which the charges are not related to violence, will be overturned.
For the first time, the House of Representatives raised the issue of legalizing marijuana at the federal level. 222 Democrats and five Republicans voted in favor. Most Republicans – 158 – spoke out against, with only six representatives Democratic Party a > agreed with them.
The authors of the document consider the decriminalization of marijuana throughout the country as one of the ways to combat systemic racism in the United States. “For too long, the fight against drugs has been directed against young people, especially blacks, and ignored the advice of experts,” said Democrat Earl Blumenauer, one of the initiators of the bill. However, Republican Party sharply criticized the bill. They control the majority in the Senate, so it is expected that the document will not go to the president for signature.
December 2 at UN voted to remove cannabis from the drug list. The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Drugs – the list of the most controlled substances.
In November it was reported that more than two-thirds of them are in favor of legalizing marijuana residents of the United States. The use of marijuana for medical purposes is legalized in a number of European countries (Italy, Czech Republic), as well as in more than 30 US states. In other states, in particular in Portugal and Austria, there are rules decriminalizing the circulation of cannabis – it is allowed to be used in special cafes, the cultivation of cannabis in small quantities is not prosecuted.