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US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 194 posts

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#21
I know hn doesn't like politics, but it amazes me how popular one party's policies are(see polls for single payer healthcare, gov funded college, wealth tax, etc ), but it is still competitive. Republicans are certainly better at "politics". It will be fun to see how they spin this into the vague notion of socialism or somehow this is taking away your freedom.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#22
post #15

2/3 of Americans support legalizing cannabis. I don’t understand why this bill is so bipartisan among politicians if so many citizens support it.

Prison Industrial Complex lobbying

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/...

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#24

In a very partisan vote that will not survive the Senate. Apart from virtue signalling, why bother? We are post election, so it doesn't even help us decide how to vote. Trying this after January at least might've made more sense. It's frustrating we see full House votes on pointless partisan efforts when there are issues like infrastructure that both parties could and should agree on and progress in.

> pointless partisan efforts

It may be partisan in terms of federal politics, but this is absolutely not a partisan issue to a huge majority of Americans.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#25

It won't pass the Senate floor. Absolutely pointless.

Of course it won't pass. But it isn't pointless - this is theater intended to distract from the utterly disastrous covid stimulus talks that have seen the dems lose more and more ground on a potential deal.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#26
post #15

2/3 of Americans support legalizing cannabis. I don’t understand why this bill is so bipartisan among politicians if so many citizens support it.

Wild accusation:

Follow the money. There are a lot of people making a lot of money off of private prisons, generally in red states.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#27
post #15

2/3 of Americans support legalizing cannabis. I don’t understand why this bill is so bipartisan among politicians if so many citizens support it.

Because Republicans don't need 50% of the support. They need way less because of imbalances built into the system. If your core support still does not support legalizing cannabis then it's not worth it to do it.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#29
post #15

2/3 of Americans support legalizing cannabis. I don’t understand why this bill is so bipartisan among politicians if so many citizens support it.

Americans don't make laws (or approve judges), Senators do. <16% of the US population elects 50 senators.

Re: US House passes federal cannabis decriminalisation bill

#30

It won't pass the Senate floor. Absolutely pointless.

The Senate is an incredibly un-democratic institution and a truly massive barrier standing in the way of a functioning government. Mitch McConnell alone can dictate Senate business at his whims.

It is democratic, just not the sort one might expect. It’s a democracy of the states. That’s by design. The House is an approximate democracy of the people in the states (with some weighting so that the most populous states don’t have a complete monopoly) and the senate is a democracy of the states. Together they form an approximate republic of the country’s opinion... in an ideal world.
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