5 ms·

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

43 points by DocFeind 6y ago

h2odragon 6y ago
Interesting debate; thanks for the cspan link which includes the transcript
- raunakdag 6y 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 6y 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 6y 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/legal-weed-house-vote-marijuana-legalization-bill/3791933001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/04/lega... https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942949288/house-approves-decriminalizing-marijuana-bill-to-stall-in-senate https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942949288/house-approves-decr...
  - pm90 6y 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.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - mrguyorama 6y ago
      The fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter what republicans do or don't do if the people who vote for them only watch Fox News and don't see this as a bad thing. Democrats can hammer all they want, the voters they need will never see the criticisms and genuinely think democrats are "as bad" or evil or something stupid
      - pm90 6y ago
        You can get your message out in many different ways. Fox News is just one (although a fairly important one). I’m specifically referring to campaign ads, people knocking on doors etc. A sizable chunk of the American electorate is neither Democrat nor Republican so swinging these voters + energizing the Democrat base can form a powerful coalition capable of winning elections, especially in purple states.
    - jklein11 6y ago
      This is really interesting. I wonder if legalization of marijuana is a hot button issue in Georgia. If it is favorable it could increase the turnout for Democrats in the runoffs. I'm also thinking that those who are strongly opposed to legalization could be convinced to turn out. I'm not sure if this is any indicator but the governor of Georgia gets pretty low marks from NORML.[1] 1. https://norml.org/us-governors/georgia/ https://norml.org/us-governors/georgia/
  - hajile 6y 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.
iaHN 6y 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:
- mikestew 6y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878445 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.
  - iaHN 6y ago
    Is this journalist untrustworthy?
    - mikestew 6y ago
      Is your memory of something someone said twenty-some years ago trustworthy? That quote might have come from a journalist, but it isn't journalism.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - exolymph 6y ago
      Anyone's recollection after decades is untrustworthy. Memory is simply not very reliable.
zxcvbn4038 6y 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.
- cwhiz 6y 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.
  - Throwaway1771 6y ago
    Those aren't real, regulated Cali vape pens. Sorry.
    - cwhiz 6y ago
      Yes, they are.
      - 6y ago

43 points by DocFeind 6y ago

h2odragon 6y ago

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

raunakdag 6y 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 6y 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 6y 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/legal-weed-house-vote-marijuana-legalization-bill/3791933001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/04/lega... https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942949288/house-approves-decriminalizing-marijuana-bill-to-stall-in-senate https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942949288/house-approves-decr...
- pm90 6y 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.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - mrguyorama 6y ago
    The fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter what republicans do or don't do if the people who vote for them only watch Fox News and don't see this as a bad thing. Democrats can hammer all they want, the voters they need will never see the criticisms and genuinely think democrats are "as bad" or evil or something stupid
    - pm90 6y ago
      You can get your message out in many different ways. Fox News is just one (although a fairly important one). I’m specifically referring to campaign ads, people knocking on doors etc. A sizable chunk of the American electorate is neither Democrat nor Republican so swinging these voters + energizing the Democrat base can form a powerful coalition capable of winning elections, especially in purple states.
  - jklein11 6y ago
    This is really interesting. I wonder if legalization of marijuana is a hot button issue in Georgia. If it is favorable it could increase the turnout for Democrats in the runoffs. I'm also thinking that those who are strongly opposed to legalization could be convinced to turn out. I'm not sure if this is any indicator but the governor of Georgia gets pretty low marks from NORML.[1] 1. https://norml.org/us-governors/georgia/ https://norml.org/us-governors/georgia/
- hajile 6y 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.

iaHN 6y 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:

mikestew 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20878445 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.
- iaHN 6y ago
  Is this journalist untrustworthy?
  - mikestew 6y ago
    Is your memory of something someone said twenty-some years ago trustworthy? That quote might have come from a journalist, but it isn't journalism.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - exolymph 6y ago
    Anyone's recollection after decades is untrustworthy. Memory is simply not very reliable.

zxcvbn4038 6y 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.

cwhiz 6y 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.
- Throwaway1771 6y ago
  Those aren't real, regulated Cali vape pens. Sorry.
  - cwhiz 6y ago
    Yes, they are.
    - 6y ago