House to consider federal marijuana legalization, cannabis stocks jump

The House Rules Committee announced it will meet to discuss a federal marijuana legalization bill next week. H.R. 3617, also known as the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, also showed up on the House’s list of bills to be considered on the House floor next week.

The MORE Act was introduced by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). The purpose of the bill is to “to decriminalize and deschedule cannabis, to provide for reinvestment in certain persons adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, to provide for expungement of certain cannabis offenses, and for other purposes.” In the bill, Rep. Nadler cites “a legacy of racial and ethnic injustices… of 80 years of cannabis prohibition enforcement,” as well as the popularity of marijuana legalization at the state level as to why the House should vote to legalize it at the federal level.

“37 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted laws allowing legal access to cannabis, and 15 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam have adopted laws legalizing cannabis for adult recreational use,” the bill reads. “A total of 47 States have reformed their laws pertaining to cannabis despite the Schedule I status of marijuana and its Federal criminalization.”

According to The Hill, the House passed a version of the MORE Act in December 2020, largely along party lines. The bill didn’t advance in the Republican-controlled Senate. According to cannabis news site Marijuana Moment, the current version of the MORE Act has already passed the House Judiciary Committee, of which Nadler is the chair.

Cannabis stocks began to rise Thursday upon the news of the bill moving forward. According to MarketWatch, a variety of cannabis-related companies were still rising as of pre-trading Friday.