THE MORE ACT

The MORE Act, otherwise known as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, decriminalizes marijuana. Specifically, it removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana.

The bill also covers:

  • Replaces statutory references to marijuana and marihuana with cannabis
  • Requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to regularly publish demographic data on cannabis business owners and employees
  • Establishes a trust fund to support various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs
  • Imposes a 5% tax on cannabis products and requires revenues to be deposited into the trust fund
  • Makes Small Business Administration loans and services available to entities that are cannabis-related legitimate businesses or service providers
  • Prohibits the denial of federal public benefits to a person on the basis of certain cannabis-related conduct or convictions
  • Prohibits the denial of benefits and protections under immigration laws on the basis of a cannabis-related event (e.g., conduct or a conviction)
  • Establishes a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings related to federal cannabis offenses
You can view the latest co-sponsors of the bill and when they signed on here  and download a copy of the letter to send to your representative below.
DOWNLOAD LETTER

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LOS ANGELES

Expungement: The MORE Act would expunge the records of those with prior cannabis convictions. A study by the Government Accountability Office found that Los Angeles County had the most per capita cannabis arrests of any major County in the United States during the period 1980-2010. Los Angeles County residents would thus disproportionately benefit from a policy that would expunge cannabis convictions, which often function as a significant barrier to obtaining employment and other critical benefits. At a time of pressing economic need, the MORE Act would provide a boost to some of the County’s most vulnerable residents.

Immigration: The MORE Act would also protect immigrants from being denied citizenship because they work in the cannabis industry, and remove the threat of deportation for those immigrants involved in minor cannabis violations. Immigrants make up more than 35% of the population of Los Angeles County, higher than any other major County in the United States. The MORE Act would thus provide critical protections to a substantial percentage of County residents and help ensure that they can participate in the growing cannabis economy without fear of reprisal by the federal government.

Reinvestment: The MORE Act also would impose a federal five percent tax on sales, revenue from which would be reinvested in communities most impacted by cannabis criminalization. Because residents of Los Angeles County disproportionately suffered from cannabis arrests, the MORE Act would ensure that substantial federal resources are devoted to economic uplift in the County. It would also reflect the principles that the City of Los Angeles’ social equity program in seeking to ensure that those communities most negatively impacted by cannabis criminalization benefit from its legalization.

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