In honor of 4/20, an unofficial national holiday for the cannabis culture, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), released its Congressional Scorecard, which assigns a letter grade to members of Congress based on their marijuana-related comments and voting record. An ‘A’ grade indicates that a member has publicly declared his or her support for the legalization and regulation of marijuana for adults, while an ‘F’ indicates that a member has expressed significant and vocal opposition to marijuana law reform.
According to their findings, 312 of the 535 members of the 114th Congress (58 percent) scored a passing grade of ‘C’ or higher. 89 percent of congressional Democrats received a passing score, while only 32 percent of Republicans did. Additionally, of the remaining presidential candidates who are currently members of Congress, Ted Cruz scored a ‘B,’ and Bernie Sanders took home an ‘A.’
“Members of Congress are increasingly becoming aware of this changing public and political sentiment,” NORML’s executive summary stated in regard to the increasing demand for marijuana reform. However, they also noted, “It is clear from this analysis that support for substantive marijuana law reform is far less pronounced among elected officials than it is among the voters they represent.”
While it is true that the idea of legalizing marijuana is slowly becoming a mainstream viewpoint, the trend is still being driven largely by millennials.
“68 percent of millennials say marijuana should be legal, while only 29 percent of the Silent Generation (those 70 to 87) share that view,” a recent Pew Research survey concluded. “Baby Boomers, who were the most supportive generation in the 1970s before becoming opponents during the ‘Just Say No’ 1980s, are now about as likely to favor (50 percent) as oppose (47 percent) legalization.”
Another Pew Research study found that while young Republicans are less supportive of marijuana legalization than their Democratic counterparts, 63 percent of GOP millennials still say the use of marijuana should be legal, a statistic that is important for presidential candidates to keep in mind as they grapple for the coveted youth vote.
Currently, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use, and more and more states have been pushing for recreational legalization. Over a dozen pieces of legislation are pending in Congress to amend our federal marijuana policies, which include proposals to reschedule it under the Controlled Substances Act, to limit the federal government’s ability to interfere in the implementation of state marijuana laws, and to expand marijuana commerce.
