NAACP, ACLU And Allies Demand Congress Pass Marijuana Bill With Justice Focus

Tom Angell

A coalition of more than 100 organizations—including NAACP, ACLU and Human Rights Watch—is coming together to call on congressional leadership to pass far-reaching legislation that would not only federally legalize marijuana but take additional steps to repair the damage of the war on drugs, which has been waged in a racially discriminatory manner.

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"We are encouraged by the progress around marijuana reform at the state and federal level," the groups wrote, pointing to rapidly changing local cannabis laws and a growing number of pending proposals on Capitol Hill. "While this progress is promising, we insist that any marijuana reform or legalization bill considered by Congress include robust provisions addressing social justice and criminal justice reform."

The organizations are specifically backing the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, a bill filed last month by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).


Among other things, the legislation would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, create processes for expungement and resentencing of prior convictions and block agencies from denying access to federal benefits or citizenship status for immigrants on the basis of marijuana use.

It would also set a new a five percent federal tax on marijuana sales, with some directed toward job training and legal aid for people impacted by prohibition enforcement as well as loans for small marijuana cannabis owned and operated by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a 2020 presidential candidate, is sponsoring companion legislation in the Senate.

Calling the bill an important step "to bolster communities ravaged by the war on drugs," the letter pushes congressional leadership to ensure that it is "swiftly marked up and immediately scheduled for floor consideration."

It was delivered on Thursday to the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA).

Also included are Nadler and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA), who is cosponsoring separate cannabis reform legislation that would allow states to implement their own legalization policies but does not contain restorative justice provisions.

"The war on drugs, which includes the war on marijuana, devastated the lives of generations of African American and Latinx Americans from low-income communities," the groups, led by the Center for American Progress (CAP), wrote. "These individuals were disproportionately targeted and brought into the criminal justice system for engaging in marijuana activity that is increasingly lawful."

Maritza Perez, senior policy analyst for Criminal Justice Reform at CAP, said in a press release that the bill is "the most far-ranging marijuana reform bill introduced in Congress to date."

“Communities of color have been on the frontlines of this country’s drug war and should not have to continue waiting for a measure of justice, especially while others are generating extraordinary wealth for marijuana activity that sent Black and Latinx individuals to prison," she added in an email.

Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau said that "many of the communities served and represented by the NAACP have been among the hardest hit by our nation’s outdated and misguided marijuana laws."

"From robbing us of the talent and promise of our young people, to the breaking-up of families, to reabsorbing returning citizens who cannot take full advantage of many of the federal services offered to other Americans, our communities feel the urgency of enacting this legislation," he said. "Thus, we have urged the Congress to act as quickly as possible to correct the flaws in the current law and move towards beginning to rectify decades of unnecessary harshness."

Also signing on to the letter are Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Aid Society, National Action Network, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Association of Social Workers, National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Law Center and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

"Criminal justice involvement deprives individuals from low-income communities of color equal access to economic opportunity," the groups wrote. "Incarceration robs families and communities of breadwinners and workers. Thus, any marijuana reform bill that moves forward in Congress must first address criminal justice reform and repair the damage caused by the war on drugs in low-income communities of color."

Cannabis industry and drug reform groups such as 4Front Ventures, Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), Harm Reduction Coalition, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Minority Cannabis Business Association, NORML and Students for Sensible Drug Policy are also signatories of the letter.

"This diverse assortment of organizations coming together to support Chairman Nadler's bill to legalize marijuana underscores the strength of the reform movement," said NORML Political Director Justin Strekal. "With the continued growth of support from nearly every corner of the political spectrum, comprehensive reform is closer than ever."

Queen Adesuiyi, policy coordinator for DPA, said that “for advocates and communities most devastated by the war on marijuana, the current opportunity that Democratic leadership has to end prohibition with a racial and economic justice lens could not have come sooner."

“From historic rates of public support for legalization to House Judiciary Chairman Nadler’s recent introduction of the most comprehensive marijuana reform bill strongly backed by civil rights and criminal justice groups – Democratic leadership have what they need to swiftly move on ending prohibition and repairing its damage,” she said.

The groups' collective endorsement of the MORE Act comes at a time when the conversation around marijuana on Capitol Hill is increasingly shifting from whether to legalize it to how to do so.

Nadler filed the MORE Act shortly after the Judiciary Committee's Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee held a hearing focused on ending prohibition, which surfaced support for cannabis reform from both sides of the aisle while revealing disagreements on whether racial justice and equity measures need to be included in marijuana legislation.

"The MORE Act’s targeted programs will serve to empower historically underserved communities that bore this nation’s drug war," the new letter says. "It will also reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system and protect people from unequal marijuana enforcement. Justice requires that marijuana reform policy in Congress first de-schedule and repair past harms."

Several of the signatory groups joined together last month to form the Marijuana Justice Coalition, which issued a statement of principles arguing that "any legislation that moves forward in Congress should be comprehensive" and "frame legalization as an issue of criminal justice reform, equity, racial justice, economic justice, and empowerment, particularly for communities most targeted by over-enforcement of marijuana laws."