The U.S. House voted to decriminalize marijuana. How did Florida lawmakers vote?
Two Florida Republicans joined the state’s Democrats in the U.S. House in passing legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
Republican Reps. Brian Mast and Matt Gaetz, both from Florida, were two of just three Republicans in the House to cross party lines and support the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act. The third Republican vote came from Rep. Tom McClintock of California.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 220-204. Other Republicans from Florida opposed the measure.
The legislation would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and deschedule it under the Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana is currently in the same category as heroin as a Schedule I drug, the most severe federal designation, even as a flood of states have moved to legalize it for medical or recreational purposes in recent years.
Removing the federal prohibition is widely seen as a green light for full legalization at the state level. Every House Democrat from Florida supported the bill, including Reps. Charlie Crist and Val Demings, who are respectively running for governor and U.S. senator.
“With state after state opening up their own cannabis laws in one form or another, the time to legalize is now! I could not be more proud to help get it done at the federal level,” Crist said in a statement celebrating the bill’s House passage.
In recent years, Florida has legalized cannabis for medical use but recreational use is still against state law.
Crist noted that low-income Americans and people of color are more likely to face prosecution for marijuana offenses despite similar rates of use across racial and economic lines.
“It’s not fair. It’s unjust. And it’s hurt communities for far too long,” Crist said.
The bill will enable nonviolent federal marijuana offenders to have their convictions expunged.
The House passed similar legislation in 2020, but it stalled in the Senate. The legislation continues to face an uncertain path in the Senate, where each party holds 50 seats. But its chances of coming to the floor are much higher under Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, an outspoken marijuana legalization advocate, than under GOP control two years ago.
Despite voting for the overall bill, Demings was one of 12 Democrats— along with retiring Rep. Stephanie Murphy — who joined Republicans in voting down an amendment with the bill that would have ensured that cannabis use could not be used as a basis to deny or reject a federal security clearance.
Demings’ office did not immediately respond to a question about her decision to oppose the amendment.
Gaetz was one of just two Republicans to support the unsuccessful security clearance amendment from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. Mast did not support it despite his vote for the overall bill.
The bill is slightly more liberal than President Joe Biden’s stated policy preference. While Biden has expressed support for decriminalization and expungement in the past, he would like to continue to treat marijuana as a controlled substance and shift its categorization to Schedule II, the same category as cocaine, which would ease medical research.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki asserted Biden’s commitment to reforming federal marijuana laws Friday, but she did not explicitly confirm the president’s support for the specific legislation passed by the House.
“As the president said during the campaign, our current marijuana laws are not working. He agrees that we need to rethink our approach including to address the racial disparities and systemic inequities in our criminal justice system, broaden research on the effects of marijuana and support the safe use of marijuana for medical purposes,” Psaki said. “We look forward to working with Congress to achieve our shared goals and will continue having discussions with them about this objective.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 2:35 PM.
