{"id":177219,"date":"2019-11-20T18:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/11\/20\/going-long-on-fig-newton-futures\/"},"modified":"2019-11-20T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:52:00","slug":"going-long-on-fig-newton-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/11\/20\/going-long-on-fig-newton-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Long on Fig Newton Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The House Judiciary Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.norml.org\/2019\/11\/20\/breaking-bill-to-end-marijuana-prohibition-passes-key-committee\/\">has passed a bill removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act<\/a>,<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time that any committee in Congress has ever passed a bill descheduling cannabis out of committee:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">For the first time ever, a  congressional committee has approved a piece of legislation to end  marijuana prohibition in the United States. The Marijuana Opportunity,  Reinvestment, and Expungement Act, better known as The MORE Act, would  remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and impose a minor  excise tax on the legal cannabis industry to pay for the expungement of  criminal records, among other changes, passed with a bipartisan vote of  24 to 10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThis is a truly historic moment in  our nation\u2019s political history. For the first time, a Congressional  committee has approved far-reaching legislation to not just put an end  to federal marijuana prohibition, but to address the countless harms our  prohibitionist policies have wrought, notably on communities of color  and other already marginalized groups,\u201d <b>stated NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,  \u201cOpposition to our failed war on marijuana has reached a boiling point  with over two-thirds of all Americans, including majorities of all  political persuasions, now supporting legalization. Congress should  respect the will of the people and promptly approve the MORE Act and  close this dark chapter of failed public policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThe passage of the MORE Act  represents the first time that the Judiciary Committee has ever had a  successful vote to end the cruel policy of marijuana criminalization,\u201d <b>said NORML Political Director Justin Strekal.<\/b>  \u201cNot only does the bill reverse the failed prohibition of cannabis, but  it provides pathways for opportunity and ownership in the emerging  industry for those who have suffered most. In 2018 alone, over 663,000  Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes, a three-year high.  Now that Chairman Nadler has moved the MORE Act through committee, it  is time for the full House to vote and have every member of Congress  show their constituents which side of history they stand on.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wonder if Joe Biden will be asked about his whole, &#8220;Marijuana is a gateway drug,&#8221; delusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House Judiciary Committee has passed a bill removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, This is the first time that any committee in Congress has ever passed a bill descheduling cannabis out of committee: For the first time ever, a congressional committee has approved a piece of legislation to end marijuana prohibition in the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[517,449,374],"class_list":["post-177219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-drugs","tag-legislation","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}