Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, called the war on drugs a racist project designed to target the nation’s minority communities on Wednesday.
“The obvious racial disparities in enforcement show us that it still is, at its core, an effort targeting communities of color through overpolicing, criminalization, and mass incarceration,” she said.
The congresswoman made the remarks as part of an effort to push the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement, also known as the MORE Act.
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The legislation would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and terminate criminal penalties for those in the United States who manufacture, distribute, or possess the drug.
“The MORE Act will increase access to federal benefits and establish a fund to redirect resources into communities harmed by the war on drugs,” Tlaib said. “This is a good start on the road to repairing the damage, but we still have more work to do.”
The legislation is a commonsense bill, she concluded.
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“We must be bold,” said Tlaib. “Our goal must be to end [the] country’s militarized, quote, ‘jail first, ask questions later’ approach to addiction and to stop trying to solve social problems with more criminalization.”
