Let's Make This the Last 4/20 Where Marijuana Is Illegal in the United States!

Care2 Update (10/18/2022): Earlier this month, President Joe Biden officially pardoned more than 6,500 people who had been convicted in federal court for simple possession of marijuana, and multiple thousands more will also be pardoned through D.C. law. This means they will also have full civil and political rights restored, meaning better access to housing, educational, and employment opportunities. This is huge news -- and a big step in the right direction! Now, Biden must work with Congress to fully decriminalize and legalize marijuana throughout all of the United States!

The House of Representatives has passed a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide and eliminate criminal penalties for possession or distribution! But the fight isn't over – the House has passed similar legislation before, only for it to fail in the Senate. Now is our opportunity to put pressure on the Senate and urge them to support long overdue reforms to federal drug laws and legalize marijuana!

Sign now to tell the Senate: the War on Drugs has failed. Legalize marijuana now! 

The War on Drugs has failed spectacularly at stopping drug use, but succeeded in locking up millions of Americans for years, decades, or life. In fact, more people are incarcerated in the United States than any other country in the world -- and it's not even close. In recent years, marijuana arrests have made up over half of all drug busts. Slashing marijuana arrests would immediately shrink the number of people sent to prison for possession – a net good for our communities. But the bill would take this even one step further by imposing a federal tax on marijuana sales to fund programs helping communities recover from the lingering impacts of the devastating War on Drugs. Legalizing marijuana and creating reparations for those who felt the worst consequences of its criminalization are essential pieces of criminal justice reform!

It is impossible to talk about prisons and criminal justice reform without talking about white supremacy and systemic racism. For this reason, marijuana legalization is also fundamentally a civil rights issue. Black Americans are roughly four times as likely to be arrested than white Americans for marijuana possession, despite both racial groups using the drug at nearly identical rates. No conversation about racial justice is complete without federal drug law reforms, and marijuana legalization plays a vital role.

While the legislation passed in the House, it faces obstacles in the Senate. Two of the Democratic skeptics are Joe Manchin and Jeanne Shaheen -- legislators from states that have experienced some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic. But we know now after decades of research that marijuana is not a gateway drug – and in fact, marijuana can actually be helpful with pain management, one of the main reasons people get hooked on opioids to begin with.

Legalizing marijuana doesn't just help give access to the medically-useful drug to millions of Americans, it also begins to reverse a century of injustice. Sign the petition now to urge all legislators in the Senate to stand on the right side of history and pass long overdue marijuana legalization and reform!