Today marked a historic victory for the cannabis movement. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment & Expungement (MORE) Act passed the US House of Representatives, which is the first time in history that Congress has passed an Act on the decriminalization of cannabis.

Which at first glance, would seem to be progress….

I mean… cannabis decriminalization has never gone so far before…

But some cannabis activists are afraid that what lies ahead won’t be as progressive as we all believe it to be. Meaning some cannabis activists fear that the MORE Act will do more harm than good. An example of such an individual is Sean Kiernan, the CEO of Weed for Warriors, a California group, with chapters here in Florida, that works to ensure access to medical marijuana for veterans.  We at Chillum CBD are very close with the Florida chapters of Weed for Warriors Project, being the home base of the Tampa chapter, so we tend to heed his advice.

Let’s make it clear that Kiernan strongly supports not only the decriminalization of cannabis, but the legalization of cannabis. He is in full support of the goals of the MORE Act, including ending the criminalization of cannabis and efforts to address the harms caused by the war on drugs.  What he has a problem with is some unintended consequences of the bill.  Probably the biggest problem he has is the provisions that would add another layer of taxes on the cannabis business.  Which already suffers from some seriously high tax issues.

Even though congress passed the MORE Act today, Kieran sent members of congress a letter urging them not to pass it. In the letter he spoke about his issue of higher taxes for the industry and how those high taxes force people to move away from legal cannabis and to the black market. Particularly disabled veterans and other patients with limited incomes.