Republican U.S. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina unveiled a bill to regulate and tax marijuana on Monday, offering a new path to reach the goal of federal cannabis policy reform. According to a press release, under the legislation, known as the States Reform Act, marijuana would be decriminalized at the federal level and states would be free to set their own cannabis regulatory policies.
At a press conference to unveil the legislation held at the Capitol on Monday afternoon, Mace noted that only three states currently lack some form of legal cannabis.
“My home state of South Carolina permits CBD, Florida allows medical marijuana, California and others have full recreational use, for example. Every state is different. Cannabis reform at the federal level must take all of this into account. And it’s past time federal law codifies this reality,” Mace said in written comments prepared for the event. “This is why I’m introducing the States Reform Act, a bill which seeks to remove cannabis from Schedule I in a manner consistent with the rights of states to determine what level of cannabis reform each state already has, or not.”
Mace, appearing with a contingent of stakeholders, veterans, and law enforcement officers, noted that public opinion polls show that a supermajority of Americans are in favor of reforming the nation’s cannabis laws. She added that her bill supports farmers, businesses, law enforcement, and medical marijuana patients while furthering the cause of criminal justice reform.
Bill Lets States Decide on Legalization
Under Mace’s bill, cannabis would be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, and the states would be allowed to take the lead on marijuana legalization and regulation for their jurisdictions. At the federal level, cannabis would be