August 19, 2020

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable Steny Hoyer

Speaker Majority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
United States Capitol United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

cc:
Rep. Jerry Nadler, Chair, House Judiciary Committee
Rep. Frank Pallone, Chair, House Energy & Commerce Committee
Rep. Collin Peterson, Chair, House Agricultural Committee
Rep. Bobby Scott, Chair, House Education & Labor Committee
Rep. Richard Neal, Chair, House Ways & Means Committee
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, Chair, Natural Resources Committee
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Chair, House Oversight & Reform Committee
Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Chair, House Small Business Committee

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:

As individuals and organizations composed of current and retired law enforcement professionals,
including police officers, judges, prosecutors, and others, we publicly endorse the Marijuana
Opportunity and Reinvestment (MORE) Act (H.R. 3884). As front-line public safety experts, we
believe that responsible regulation and control of marijuana will be more beneficial to society
than prohibiting and criminalizing it. The COVID-19 pandemic shines a bright light on why this
kind of reform is as urgent as ever as a matter of public health, safety, and better use of much
needed resources. We write to you today to request that you swiftly bring this critical
legislation to the House floor for a vote in September.

Last fall, the House Judiciary Committee made history by supporting the MORE Act and
becoming the first Congressional body to vote in favor of de-scheduling marijuana. Indeed,
legalizing, regulating, and controlling marijuana at the federal level is an opportunity to repair
and strengthen the relationships between us and the people we serve; to shift public resources
toward the most serious crimes; to reduce the size and influence of the illicit market; and to usher
in an era of health-centered approaches — rather than criminal punishment — for people who
use drugs.

A significant driver of public distrust in law enforcement is our focus on low-level

marijuana arrests. As the most visible part of the justice system, we police are already met with
animosity every day. Our effectiveness and morale should not suffer unnecessarily. If marijuana
had never been criminalized, many more Americans would greet us with warmth and
cooperation rather than fear and malice. Without the trust of the people we serve, we lose a
valuable crime-fighting resource. When community members refuse to talk to us, fail to present
evidence or even to report crime, our jobs become much more difficult. Legalizing marijuana
will help alleviate this tension and allow us to focus on our shared priorities: responding to
emergencies and curbing serious crime.

The resources used to enforce marijuana law violations could be shifted and used to more
effectively tackle serious and violent crimes. Americans were arrested for marijuana seven
million times between 2001 and 2010, the vast majority of which were just for possession. Even
as more states legalize marijuana, police made more than 663,000 marijuana arrests — 92% of
them for possession — last year alone. Meanwhile, homicide and sex crimes units struggle to get
evidence examined in a timely manner. While that evidence sits in storage for years collecting
dust, predators roam free to harm more innocent people. This misallocation of resources is
disgraceful. By legalizing marijuana at the federal level, we will send a message to every police
department in this country about our real priorities. Our allegiance lies with crime survivors and
would-be victims, not with marijuana prohibition. By focusing on serious crime and creating safe
neighborhoods — rather than arresting people for a drug most Americans think should be legal
— we will be able to solve more crimes and earn back the trust of our communities.

Regulation reduces youth access and keeps adult consumers safe. Criminalizing marijuana
has been a boon to the illegal market where there are no regulations, product testing, etc.
Resourceful teenagers do not usually have trouble accessing marijuana when it is illegal.
Underground sellers do not have to obtain age verification before making a sale and may sell
other far more dangerous substances. Legalizing marijuana shrinks the size of the market
available to teens, which simultaneously reduces their exposure to criminal activity in general.

A profitable underground market supports the high demand for marijuana, much as it did during
the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and ‘30s. Calling marijuana a “controlled” substance is
illusory; where it is illegal, we have no control. We cannot ensure the purity of the product,
require the use of childproof containers, or determine who can buy and sell it. Over time,
marijuana legalization will drive out the underground market, just as alcohol bootleggers
disappeared after repealing alcohol prohibition. Right now, the underground market still
flourishes because marijuana is legal in some places and not others. The most impactful way to
take marijuana profits away from criminal organizations and reduce youth access is to regulate
marijuana similarly to how we regulate alcohol and cigarettes.

We believe that public health interventions for problematic drug use are superior at
improving health outcomes than are legal consequences. For too long, the responsibility of
dealing with nuisance drug use has been relegated to law enforcement. We do not have the tools,
training, or time to be drug counselors for problematic use.

When someone struggles with alcohol addiction, they need access to treatment and other
supports that help stabilize a person’s life. Elements like access to housing, nutritious food, and
viable employment can help a person struggling with addiction on their road to recovery. When a
person who struggles with alcohol misuse abuses a loved one or causes a car accident, we do not
arrest them for possessing alcohol; we arrest them for the action that caused harm. Marijuana
users should be treated no differently. Just as a majority of alcohol users enjoy responsibly, so do
a majority of marijuana users.

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Driving while intoxicated on any drug will always be illegal. As law enforcement
professionals, we support robust training for police in how to perform roadside impairment tests.
Whether marijuana is legal is irrelevant to this work because the law has not stopped millions of
people from consuming it for thousands of years. Three years after Colorado and Washington
legalized marijuana, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of fatal
automotive accidents compared to states where it is illegal.

The sky has not fallen in states that have legalized. Research indicates that in states where
marijuana is already legal, youth use is either stable or declining; living near a dispensary does
not influence teens’ perception of marijuana or use rates; marijuana-related activity by cartels
has declined significantly; and legalization may have contributed to police effectiveness and
higher clearance rates for violent crimes, property crimes, motor vehicle thefts, and burglaries.

The MORE Act provides a clear path forward that rights the wrongs of prohibition, and will
significantly help law enforcement forge better relationships with the people we serve and bring
justice to families of serious, violent crimes. We ask that Members of Congress support this
critical piece of legislation and ensure that it is swiftly brought to the House floor for a vote in
September.

Sincerely,

Organizations

Law Enforcement Action Partnership

National Black Police Association
Fair and Just Prosecution

Individuals

J.H. Barr
Municipal Prosecutor
Township of Clark, NJ

Buta Biberaj
Commonwealth’s Attorney
Loudoun County, VA

Terry Blevins
Former Sergeant and Terrorism Liaison Officer
Gila County, Arizona Sheriff's Office
Former Security Advisor
US Department of Defense and Department of State

Chesa Boudin
District Attorney
City and County of San Francisco, CA

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Michael Brautigam
Former Assistant District Attorney
Brooklyn, NY

Lt. Nick Bucci (Ret.)

New Jersey State Police
Seaside Park, NJ

Chief Brendan Cox (Ret.)

Albany Police Department
Albany, NY

Parisa Dehghani-Tafti
Commonwealth’s Attorney
Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, VA

Officer David Doddridge (Ret.)

Los Angeles Police Department, CA

Michael Dougherty
District Attorney
Boulder, CO

Keith Ellison
Attorney General, MN

Kim Foxx
State’s Attorney
Cook County (Chicago), IL

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)

Maryland State Police

Inge Fryklund
Former Assistant State's Attorney
Cook County, IL

Kimberly Gardner
Circuit Attorney
St. Louis, MO

Sarah F. George
State’s Attorney
Chittenden County, VT

4
Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.)
Redondo Beach Police Department, CA

Tim Hitt
Former Police Corporal
Monroe Police Department, LA

Chief Robert J. Hoffman (Ret.)

Plainfield Police Department, CT

Peter Holmes
City Attorney
Seattle, WA

Captain Lawrence Hunter (Ret.)

Waterbury Police Department, CT

Natasha Irving
District Attorney
Sixth Prosecutorial District
Waldoboro, ME

Letitia James
Attorney General, NY

Kathy Jennings
Attorney General, DE

Justin F. Kollar
Prosecuting Attorney
County of Kaua’i, HI

Miriam Aroni Krinsky

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Central District of California
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California (1987-1988; 1990-2002)
Chair, Solicitor General’s Criminal Appellate Advisory Group (2000-2002)

Former Special Agent David Long

Office of Inspector General
U.S. Department of Labor

Capt. Leigh Maddox (Ret.)

Maryland State Police

Sheriff James Manfre (Ret.)

Flagler County Sheriff's Office, FL

5
Detective Nick Morrow (Fmr.)
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, CA

Stephanie Morales
Commonwealth’s Attorney
Portsmouth, VA

Marilyn J. Mosby
State’s Attorney for Baltimore City
Baltimore, MD

Det. Sgt. J. Gary Nelson (Ret.)

Scottsdale Police Department, AZ

Det. Sgt. Ted Nelson (Ret.)

Michigan State Police
Howard City, MI

Patrick Nightingale
Former Assistant District Attorney
Allegheny County, PA

Johnn Osborn
Deputy District Attorney
Second Judicial District Attorney's Office
Albuquerque, NM

Deputy Inspector Corey Pegues (Ret.)

New York Police Department, NY

Jim Petro
Former Attorney General
Columbus, OH

Captain Sonia Pruitt

Montgomery County Police Department, MD

Ira Reiner
Former District Attorney
Former City Attorney
Los Angeles, CA

Rachael Rollins
District Attorney
Suffolk County (Boston), MA

6
Ellen Rosenblum
Attorney General, OR

Dan Satterberg
Prosecuting Attorney
King County (Seattle), WA

Harry L. Shorstein
Former State’s Attorney
Fourth Judicial Circuit, FL

Carol Siemon
Prosecuting Attorney
Ingham County, MI

Chief Norm Stamper (Ret.)

Seattle Police Department, WA

Deputy Sheriff Paul Steigleder (Ret.)

Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, OR

Chief Betty Taylor (Ret.)

Winfield Police Department, MO

Sgt. Carl Tennenbaum (Ret.)

San Francisco Police Department, CA

Superintendent Richard Van Wickler

Cheshire County Department of Corrections, NH

Chief Peter Volkmann

Chatham Police Department, NY

Allison Watson
Former Assistant District Attorney
13th Judicial District of Tennessee

Officer Jack Wilborn (Ret.)

Glendale Police Department Reserves, AZ

7
THE CASE FOR
COMPREHENSIVE
MARIJUANA
REFORM:
Policies &
Public Opinion

August 2020
INTRODUCTION
Although American voters from across the
political spectrum overwhelmingly support
legalizing marijuana—and 38 states and
Washington, D.C. have already decriminalized the
drug or authorized its medical use—the racially
unjust, ineffective, and wasteful war on marijuana
persists. Law enforcement agencies arrest
hundreds of thousands of people for marijuana
possession every year, and in every state Black
people are far more likely to be arrested than
white people. In some states, Black people are 8 or
9 times more likely to be arrested.
Even in jurisdictions where the sale and use of
marijuana is legal, it remains criminalized under
federal law. Since 1970, under the Controlled
Substances Act, marijuana has been classified as
a Schedule I substance, a designation reserved for
drugs that have a “high potential for abuse and
the potential to create severe psychological and/
or physical dependence.” The consequences of
criminalization have been devastating. Needless
arrests, incarceration, and collateral consequences
like housing and job loss, all rife with gaping
racial disparities, have destabilized and further
marginalized already vulnerable communities.
These consequences are magnified by the
combined health and economic crises flowing
from the coronavirus pandemic. Arrests and
incarceration heighten the risk of spreading
disease, and states struggling with massive
budget shortfalls are deprived of tax revenue that
regulated marijuana sales would generate.
In a national poll, we asked voters whether they
support comprehensive marijuana reform that
would legalize marijuana and begin to address
the historic, intergenerational harms wrought
by decades of racially disparate enforcement.
THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION
We specifically asked about the Marijuana
Opportunity Reinvestment & Expungement
(MORE) Act, legislation that would decriminalize
marijuana at the federal level and redress some
injustices of marijuana prohibition through,
among other reforms, expungement of previous
convictions and establishing grant programs to
benefit communities disproportionately harmed
by the war on drugs.
We found strong bipartisan support for these
reforms and, in particular, the MORE Act:
⊲ 58% of likely voters, including 54%
of Republicans, think that the federal
government should legalize the use and
sale of marijuana;
⊲ 69% of likely voters, including 67%
of Republican voters, believe the federal
government should respect the rights of
individual states that have already legalized
marijuana sales and not pursue legal action
against them;
⊲ 63% of likely voters, including 59% of
Republicans, believe that some tax funds
from the sale of marijuana should go to
community reinvestment funds to support
the communities most harmed by punitive
drug policy;
⊲ 65% of likely voters, including 67% of
Republicans, agree that marijuana tax
dollars provide valuable revenue for
states;
⊲ Even in states where marijuana remains
illegal, 60% of likely voters, including 58%
of Republicans, believe that police should
stop arresting people for the possession of
2
 marijuana intended for personal use; while
55% overall, and 50% of Republicans,
believe police should stop arresting people
for the sale of small quantities of
marijuana;
⊲ 62% of likely voters, including 60% of
Republicans, support the MORE Act when
asked about its specific provisions.
In this moment of national reckoning over our
history of racially biased policing, and as millions
of Americans from every corner of the country
demand policy changes to protect Black lives and
promote racial justice, passing the MORE Act—
which both eliminates a tool of racially disparate
policing enforcement and directs resources to
repair harmed communities—is one essential step.
BACKGROUND
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and classified
marijuana under Schedule I, a designation
reserved for drugs considered to be highly-
addictive and that have no accepted medical use.
But the decision to classify marijuana alongside
heroin and PCP (fentanyl and cocaine, for
comparison, are classified under Schedule II) was
fundamentally at odds with the drug’s scientific
and addictive properties. John Ehrlichman,
then Nixon’s counsel and assistant for domestic
affairs, later explained how the classification was
instead about criminalizing entire communities,
a means of social control and surveillance that
would enable the police to target Black people
for enforcement: “The Nixon campaign in 1968,
and the Nixon White House after that, had two
enemies: the antiwar left and [B]lack people,”
he told a reporter in 1994. “We knew we couldn’t
make it illegal to be either against the war or
[B]lack, but by getting the public to associate
THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION
the hippies with marijuana and [B]lacks with
heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we
could disrupt those communities. We could arrest
their leaders, raid their homes, break up their
meetings, and vilify them night after night on the
evening news. Did we know we were lying about
the drugs? Of course we did.”
In the decades since, the War on Drugs—and
the war on marijuana in particular—has been
a long and costly campaign of injustice waged
by Democrats and Republicans alike. It has
inflicted misery upon millions of Black Americans
whose lives have been destroyed by selective
enforcement. The devastation came not just from
arrests, jail time, and lengthy prison sentences
(some people have been sentenced to life without
parole for marijuana offenses), but also sweeping
collateral consequences: the loss of voting rights,
housing, employment, and federal benefits;
separation from families and communities; and
lost custody of children. Marijuana enforcement
does not promote public safety, but it does enforce
and exacerbate systemic racism within the
nation’s criminal legal system.
These policies have especially deadly
consequences amid the ongoing pandemic and
economic crisis. Arresting and incarcerating
people risks spreading the coronavirus behind
bars and throughout the broader community.
At the same time, with state economies in freefall
and critical programs at risk, the fiscal benefits
of legalization—and increased tax revenue—can
help revitalize depleted revenue streams. New
Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, for
example, blamed recent state spending cuts on
the legislature’s failure to legalize and regulate
marijuana last year, a move that could have
generated an estimated $100 million in
tax revenue.
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Do you agree or disagree that marijuana tax dollars provide valuable revenue
for states?

Voters across the political spectrum have long that 58% of likely voters, including 54% of
supported marijuana legalization. Our polling Republicans, think that the federal government
shows this trend has continued: we found should legalize the use and sale of marijuana.

Do you agree or disagree that the federal government should legalize the use
and sale of marijuana for adults?

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION 4
MOMENTUM
TOWARD REFORM
Today 11 states and Washington, D.C. have
legalized the recreational use of marijuana, 16
other states have decriminalized marijuana
use (Virginia became the 16th in May), and 11
states have legalized medical marijuana use.
Elsewhere, enforcement has dropped amid the
pandemic, with prosecutors dismissing charges
and police opting for citations over arrests to
limit coronavirus exposure—a policy change that
underscores how unnecessary harsh criminal
enforcement was in the first place.
Indeed, curtailing arrests for marijuana, even
where the drug remains illegal, is a popular
approach: 60% of likely voters overall and 58%
of Republicans believe that police should stop
arresting people for the possession of marijuana
intended for personal use; and 55% of likely
voters, including 50% of Republicans, think police
should stop arresting people for the sale of small
quantities of marijuana.

Do you agree or disagree that police should stop arresting people for the possession
of marijuana intended for personal use?

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION 5
Do you agree or disagree that police should stop arresting people for the sale of
small quantities of marijuana?

RACIAL JUSTICE
DEMANDS
MARIJUANA
REFORM
Despite the public momentum for reform,
racially disparate enforcement has continued at
alarming rates. According to a recent ACLU report,
law enforcement made more than 6.1 million
marijuana arrests from 2010 to 2018. In 2018,
there were almost 700,000 marijuana arrests—
more than for all violent crimes combined,
according to the FBI—with nearly 90% made for
possession alone. On average, the ACLU found, a
Black person in America is 3.64 times more likely
to be arrested for marijuana possession than a
white person, although they use marijuana at
similar rates. In some states, Black people were up
to 8 or 9 times more likely to be arrested.
As a result of these disparities, Black people and
their communities are also disproportionately
harmed by the collateral consequences of
enforcement, though “collateral” is a misnomer
when the chain reaction of a drug arrest—loss of
jobs, homes, and children, being pushed further
and further to the margins of society—is a
feature, not bug, of the War on Drugs.
Marijuana reform is, in other words, a racial
justice issue: Any movement for legalization
must address the long-standing and racially
disparate injustice of enforcement. Legalizing
marijuana without addressing the historic harms
of prohibition will not adequately address long-
standing disparities.

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION 6
Already, as more states legalize marijuana,
corporations, wealthy entrepreneurs, politicians,
and governments are increasingly reaping profits
from a fledgling marijuana industry, while Black
and Brown people languish in prison for merely
possessing the same drug. In 1999, Congressman
John Boehner, a Republican Representative
from Ohio, voted to prohibit medical marijuana
in Washington, D.C. In 2011, as Speaker of the
House, he wrote a constituent to say that he
was “unalterably opposed to the legalization of
marijuana.” Today, Boehner sits on the board
of Acreage Holdings, a publicly-traded cannabis
company based in New York, putting himself in
the position to make millions of dollars.
At the same time, some states that have legalized
marijuana prevent people with drug convictions
from participating in the emerging marketplace,
ensuring that those harmed most by prohibition
and draconian enforcement are cut off from the
profits and employment that legalization can bring.
Our polling shows bipartisan support for
meaningful legislative marijuana reform that
would legalize marijuana and begin to address
the intergenerational harms wrought by
racially disparate and selective enforcement.
Voters support legalization—including
delisting marijuana in the CSA—and they also
support policies to economically empower
the communities that the War on Drugs has
disproportionately targeted and devastated.
PROPOSED FEDERAL
REFORM & PUBLIC
OPINION
Last year, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and
Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY), introduced
the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment
& Expungement (MORE) Act, the most
THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION
comprehensive marijuana reform legislation
pending in Congress. The bill provides a reparative
approach to marijuana legalization under federal
law. It would remove marijuana from the list of
banned substances under the CSA, allowing states
to set their own policies without the specter of
federal prosecution. It would also create pathways
to expungement of previous convictions, provide
economic benefits and protections to communities
most harmed by marijuana enforcement, and
prohibit discrimination based on the use or
possession of marijuana.
Specifically, the MORE Act would:
⊲ Allow people with convictions to petition
federal courts for resentencing and
expungement;
⊲ Prohibit the denial of any federal public
benefit, including housing benefits, based on
the use or possession of marijuana, or prior
conviction for a marijuana offense;
⊲ Provide that the use or possession of
marijuana, or a prior conviction for a
marijuana offense, will have no adverse
impact under immigration law; and
⊲ Create an Opportunity Trust Fund through
a sales tax on marijuana and marijuana
products. Through various grant programs,
the trust fund would (1) provide services to
the individuals most adversely impacted by
the War on Drugs, including job training,
re-entry services, legal aid, literacy programs,
youth recreation, mentoring, and substance
use treatment; (2) fund loans to assist small
businesses in the marijuana industry that
are owned and controlled by socially and
economically disadvantaged individuals; and
(3) fund programs that minimize barriers to
marijuana licensing and employment for the
individuals most adversely impacted by the
War on Drugs.
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Our national poll found that voters of both itself, with 62% of likely voters, including 60% of
parties support these policies and the MORE Act Republicans supporting the bill.

Do you support or oppose the passage of the MORE Act?

Do you agree that the federal government should respect the rights of individual
states that have already legalized marijuana sales and not pursue legal action
against them?

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION 8
Community reinvestment funds are tax revenue that the federal government and
states use to invest in programs that directly benefit the communities most negatively
impacted by current and former drug policy. Which of these statements is closer to
your view?

POLLING
METHODOLOGY
From 5/8/2020 to 5/9/2020 Data for Progress
conducted a survey of 1235 likely voters
nationally using web panel respondents. The
sample was weighted to be representative of likely
voters by age, gender, education, urbanicity, race,
and voting history. The survey was conducted in
English. The margin of error is ± 2.7 percent.

This report is a joint project of Data for Progress,

The Justice Collaborative Institute, The Law
Enforcement Action Partnership, and Fair and
Just Prosecution.

COVER PHOTO
Ndispensable/UNSPLASH

THE CASE FOR COMPREHENSIVE MARIJUANA REFORM: POLICIES & PUBLIC OPINION 9