House representatives are set to vote on a potentially historic bill to decriminalize marijuana across the nation.
Fox 4 spoke with a local expert about its health benefits and potential impact on the community.
“The cats out of the bag, marijuana is not a deadly drug it is actually helping people to get off of deadly drugs, ” said Nick Garulay, Founder and CEO of My Florida Green.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act would potentially remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances.
“You have a better chance of dying eating a ham sandwich than you do using marijuana, ” said Garulay.
He mentioned the need for increased access to marijuana.
“Marijuana has proven to be incredible for anxiety, inflammation, sleep, as well as severe conditions cancer, PTSD, Parkinson's, ALS, ” said Garulay.
The proposed bill would also work to expunge those convicted or arrested on federal drug charges, this comes after nationwide calls for social justice.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Americans are nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than their white counterparts, even though they use at roughly the same rates.
The bill will also create what's called the Opportunity Fund, placing a 5% sales tax on marijuana, to help communities impacted by drugs.
The House is set to vote on the MORE Act the week of September 21st.
If passed it would then go to the Senate, and states would be required to opt-in creating their own decriminalization laws.
