House Approves Historic Federal Marijuana Bill Not Likely to Pass in Senate

The House of Representatives cast a historic vote over decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level late last week. In a 158 to 122 outcome, the House approved legislation to decriminalize the drug in effort to “address the devastating injustices caused by the war on drugs.” This is the first time the Chamber of Congress has ever voted on such a sweeping bill. It also comes as about 44 states have now approved use of the drug in some capacity, whether that be full legalization or for medicinal purposes only. At least 5 states recently passed marijuana related laws in this year’s general election. What’s even more impressive is every state in which a measure was proposed this year was also approved, showing the majority of Americans support some form of legalization. However, the bill is unlikely to be as successful in the Senate since they are a Republican majority and the vote came, yet again, down to party lines. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously sworn to never bring such a bill before the floor.