"Best cannabis in the world"
Member from House of Representatives in favor of legal weed
Justin Wong (JW)May 9, 2025
Nancy Mace started using marijuana after she was raped in high school. "There was no light in my life," Mace told Yahoo News of that time. "I dropped out of school and became a waitress at the Waffle House.
Eventually, she returned to school with renewed determination, and in 1999 became the first woman to graduate from the Citadel. After working in South Carolina politics, she was elected a Republican to the US House of Representatives in 2018, becoming only the second woman to represent the state in Washington.
Now she's using her newfound influence nationally to campaign for the legalization of the drug that helped her overcome the trauma of a sexual assault, with a law that decriminalizes the drug and taxes it, with one a three percent "sin tax" (also known as an excise tax), similar to what formerly applied to tobacco and alcohol. With the so-called "States Reform Act" cannabis would be treated like alcohol and not like heroin.
"When you poll this issue and put it on the ballot, there is overwhelming support regardless of political affiliation," Mace said in a recent interview with Yahoo News. In fact, cannabis legalization seems to be the least controversial issue in a controversy-torn society. A recent Pew poll shows that 91 percent of Americans support legalization.
Cannabis (the word "marijuana" has fallen out of favor, in part because of its racial connotations) is already legal for medical use in 37 states; 18 states also allow recreational use. However, the federal government still puts the drug in the same category as LSD and ecstasy, making it difficult even in states where cannabis is legal to obtain essential functions like banking for pharmacies.
Mace's proposal is one of several cannabis-related proposals currently being considered by Congress. An obstacle to much of this legislation is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has his own ambitious cannabis reform bill that he prefers to more modest proposals that would, for example, make it easier for cannabis-related businesses to use the federal banking system.
Schumer even removed a banking-related provision from last year's defense bill, angering House members who introduced and supported the measure. "I don't really know what his problem is," Rep. Jim McGovern (Massachusetts) said of Schumer at the time.
Proponents continue their argument, seeing the democratic control of Congress as an excellent opportunity for action. But with the coronavirus pandemic disrupting the normal course of the legislature and other progressive priorities, it's not obvious that cannabis is getting the hearing it deserves. A Bloomberg analyst described interest in reform as "lukewarm".
Mace says Democrats have committed to a hearing on their bill that would allow states to regulate cannabis at their discretion. "He'll be the tastiest for both parties," she told Yahoo News.
The cultural-political aspects of the issue are intriguing, putting a traditional conservative like Mace in the same boat as libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Last year, the White House came under fire for firing five employees who admitted to having used cannabis in the past.
The issue is far less popular with Republicans (47 percent agree, according to Pew) than Democrats (72 percent), meaning Mace's position is not without risk. The issue is nowhere near as politically settled in South Carolina as it is in some other states, where legalization is a hotly contested issue in the upcoming gubernatorial race.
After introducing the bill, Mace was rebuked by the South Carolina Republican Party leader, who denounced "any effort to legalize or decriminalize the use of controlled substances."
Mace says she's not afraid to go it alone, although some Republicans in the House of Representatives support her proposal. "If you do that, you'll never get anywhere," she told Yahoo News.
In her short time in Washington, Mace has blazed her own trail several times, charting a course that is neither slavish to Trump nor committed to the Kinzinger-Cheney model of internal resistance. She's clashed with both Ocasio-Cortez and MAGA-loyal Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom she dismissed with a classic Southern quip: "Bless her f***ing heart."
While that kind of rhetoric has grabbed headlines, it hasn't necessarily endeared itself to the GOP leadership. "I don't really understand the game she's playing," one congressman admitted to Politico last fall.
The complex cross-currents of the moment could bring Mace an unexpected victory as both parties need something to campaign with in the fall. But the same dynamic could also leave Mace with a failed bill that draws Republican enmity while unloved by moderate Democrats.
Still, the effort was given a big boost last month by support from Amazon, which has become increasingly involved in Washington affairs (founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post as well as the largest residence in the county). "Like so many in this country, we believe it is time to reform the nation's cannabis policy and Amazon is committed to leading the effort," tweeted an account linked to the company's lobbying efforts.
It's a single tweet, but one that represents a corporate giant settling in Northern Virginia. The news gave Mace's proposal "a lot of momentum going into the beginning of this year," she said. "I foresee other companies being encouraged to support the bill. Given the cultural standing of giants like Amazon, such corporate commitments could prove more promising for their bill than pleas from activists in other efforts.
So far, however, drug reform efforts have been concentrated at the state level and there is little evidence of national policy. Maine is in the process of decriminalizing psilocybin (better known as "magic mushrooms"), which the District of Columbia decriminalized last year. There are even moves to legalize LSD, as evidence mounts that psychedelic drugs - long caricatured as a hippie habit - can successfully treat some serious mental illnesses.
About half of all Americans have tried cannabis in some form, and while concerns remain about its heavy use by youth, cannabinoids - the psychoactive compounds in the buds of the cannabis plant - also appear to help with a range of ailments. Mace reports that she recently spoke to a mother whose 14-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy and has a series of seizures every day. Cannabis helps, even in the "trace amounts" the mother says she administered.
"We have the best cannabis in the world," she says of the United States, imagining a kind of boom akin to that of the dying American wine industry that began after California vintages outperformed their continental counterparts at a famous 1976 tasting in Paris. "Let's start here."
