WASHINGTON: With bipartisan support, the US House of Representatives passed legislation decriminalising marijuana on a federal basis. The bill was approved mostly along party lines, 220-204, with three Republicans joining all but two Democrats in favour.
Anyone who makes, distributes or possesses marijuana would face no criminal repercussions under the bill, and it would be officially removed from the federal list of controlled narcotics. It also proposes a fee on the sale of cannabis products, as well as processes for expunging previous offences from people's records.
On the House floor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the bill was "far overdue," but that it would not "undermine states' right to apply their criminal laws to marijuana or to legalise and regulate it as they see proper." "We have handled marijuana as a criminal justice issue for far too long, rather than as a matter of personal choice and public health," the New York Democrat said.
Democrats have accused Republicans of "legalising narcotics and utilising American tax funds to kick start and prop up the marijuana economy," according to Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House panel. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Democrats are apparently working on a marijuana legalisation bill that may be introduced as early as this spring.
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