Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced the Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act of 2019, which allows the use of marijuana in federally assisted housing.

“Individuals living in federally funded housing should not fear eviction simply for treating their medical conditions or for seeking a substance legal in their state,” Norton said. “Increasingly, Americans are changing their views on marijuana, state by state, and it is time that Congress caught up with its own constituents. With so many states improving their laws, this issue should have broad bipartisan appeal because it protects states’ rights.”

The legislation would allow individuals to use marijuana in federally assisted housing in compliance with the state’s marijuana laws and would require Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to develop regulations that restrict smoking marijuana in federally assisted housing in the same manner and to the same locations as the secretary regulates smoking tobacco.

Secretary Carson has had a mixed record with statements on marijuana policy, stating in 2015 that he would “intensify” the war on drugs in an interview with Glen Beck. More recently, however, Carson has come out against the war on drugs and its effects on minority communities around the nation.

“The war on poverty sometimes conflicted with the war on drugs, which often dealt harshly with non-violent offenders, taking men away from their families, and disproportionately affecting minority communities,” Carson said in December 2017 during a keynote at the Manhattan Institute.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the past by Rep. Holmes Norton, who last year put the bill up that did not make it out of the Republican-controlled committee. This time, the legislation has a better chance of being sent to the Democratic-controlled House Committee on Financial Services, where marijuana reform legislation has already passed overwhelmingly.

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