House passes bill decriminalizing marijuana at federal level

The more interesting part of the article is buried here.

> "[Biden] would allow states to continue to make their own choices regarding legalization and would seek to make it easier to conduct research on marijuana's positive and negative health impacts by rescheduling it as a schedule 2 drug," Andrew Bates, who is now a spokesperson for the Biden transition, told CNN.

I'd like to hear someone argue for why this isn't the worst of both worlds.

What good reason is there to leave marijuana as a controlled substance? It seems like they want a law on the books that every marijuana user is technically breaking, but that they plan to not enforce. That's not good policy. That's something they can hold over your head.

My take is that they are pushing rescheduling rather than legalization because marijuana serves a valid purpose in the Democratic party agenda of eroding the second amendment. It is a felony for an "unlawful user of [...] any controlled substance" to "possess [...] any firearm." Rescheduling doesn't change anything in that equation, which they like.

Under a Biden administration, we're probably going to get half-baked rescheduling solution that appropriates millions of federal tax dollars for expunging records, provides zero additional tax income, and continues the practice of making pot smokers second class citizens with regards to the second amendment. Why can't the government ever do anything right?

To illustrate my contempt, I find it incredibly hypocritical that one can be a raging alcoholic, and own an arsenal of guns... but according to US federal law if you are an "unlawful" user of controlled substances, you are BARRED from gun ownership. That definition includes weed (schedule 1).

It really is asinine and not serving any purpose, except for the prison/law-enforcement industry.

We need to legalize this plant, and clear out all non-violent (possession-only) offenses from the record. It is time, in my opinion.