Will Blocking MORE Act Hurt Republicans?

Last month, and much to the delight of cannabis enthusiasts, The MORE Act passed the House of Representatives. While this wasn’t the first time the House passed such legislation, there was renewed optimism, especially since the majority of Americans support some form of marijuana legalization.

In order for the MORE Act to continue on its way towards the law, however, there are apparently insurmountable hurdles in the room. The bill “must receive 60 votes in the evenly divided Senate before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature, an outcome widely considered unlikely given the lack of Republican support for the measure,” according to Reuters.

If Republicans don’t support the MORE Act, which they probably won’t, what does that mean for Republicans running for re-election in states where marijuana is a major issue? Besides, how can Republican senators and congressmen keep their seats when their vote seems to go against the general consensus of the American people?

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RELATED: How the failure of the MORE ACT reveals two classes of society

One belief is that while many Republican lawmakers vote “no” to the MORE Act and other marijuana laws, they don’t do so simply to adhere to the old and tired Republican “War on Drugs” platform.

“Every two years you get a new generation of members from both parties, but certainly from the Republican Party, who don’t have to defend the drug war … and they don’t have to support it,” cannabis advocate and former The Maryland GOP state delegate , Don Murphy told Politico. He says they can vote with their conscience instead. But that also means these congressmen and senators can come up with a long list of new reasons for voting against marijuana legalization.

Take the recent passage of the MORE Act in Congress. When it came time for deliberations on the bill, “most of the Republicans who took the podium to voice their opposition to the bill said there were more important crises for Congress to address than the invasion of of Ukraine from rising gas prices to inflation,” according to the Forbes report. While these issues raised by Republicans are certainly important issues, these comments can also be viewed as political dodging.

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Another important difference is that while the majority of Americans support marijuana legalization, there are many regions and populations that are much more conservative than normal and strongly opposed to marijuana legalization. Although these conservatives are a minority in the population, they are very well represented in Congress and the Senate, often because “politically engaged Republicans are much more likely to be conservative than less politically engaged Republicans. That means they’re likely overrepresented in Congress compared to the Republican electorate overall,” according to CNN.

The Republican-backed marijuana legislation is another avenue some less-conservative Republicans are taking to avoid backlash, but also to avoid joining the MORE Act. The States Reform Act sponsored by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is a recent popular example of this.

RELATED: House Passes MORE Act to Legalize Weed at the Federal Level, But Don’t Get Too Excited

Senate Republican support looks bleak at best. With a slim majority and inter-party tensions at alarming levels, it is difficult to have any hope of any sort of breakthrough legislation. Still, all hope is not lost. “A push for the MORE Act could still be seriously considered by the Senate, especially since the MORE Act offers more compromising provisions,” according to The National Law Review.

The MORE Act, which goes into effect in 2022, is more of a fantasy than a reality, and Republicans appear to have been successful in blocking that bill without much criticism. However, when you look at all the new legalization legislation and the increasing public support from both sides of the aisle, you can’t help but feel that a solution is so close you can almost smell it.