Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill known as the MORE (Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement) Act of 2019.  If it becomes law, the MORE Act would largely leave the legality of selling, producing and using cannabis for the individual states to decide.  It would remove marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act and it would require the removal of cannabis convictions from millions of criminal records.  

While this is a victory for all who view the current state of federal laws regarding cannabis as outdated and intolerable, legalization on the federal level still has a long road in front of it.  It is likely that the House will pass this bill but then it goes to the Senate. Given the largely Democratic vote in favor of the bill yesterday, the Republicans will need to be convinced to support it. Hopefully the state control of the situation under this bill will serve to win bipartisan support.