City Bar Applauds Passage of MORE Act

The New York City Bar Association applauds today’s historic passage of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment & Expungement (MORE) Act by the House of Representatives. The MORE Act would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and create a process for expunging and resentencing prior marijuana convictions.

The City Bar has long supported marijuana decriminalization.  In 1994, our Drugs & the Law Committee issued its report “A Wiser Course: Ending Drug Prohibition” describing the unintended consequences of drug prohibition policy, including continuing pervasive use of illegal drugs, overcrowding of court dockets and prisons, continued threats to public health and safety, and accumulation of wealth through the illicit drug trade. Since then the City Bar has been advocating for a new approach to drug policy and for the decriminalization of, and ultimately the legalization of, marijuana.

Marijuana prohibition is a costly, ineffective, and failed policy that has devastated families and communities, eroded respect for the law, and strained police community relations.  We applaud the House for taking this historic vote and urge the Senate to follow suit.