EDITORS' PICK|
|719 views On February 1, Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement announcing that marijuana reform bills would be merged as
--> Congress moves toward some form of federal cannabis legalization.
In the wake of this announcement, the cannabis market soared.
Hopes are higher than ever that we are on the brink of widepsread cannabis reform in the United States and this would obviously have huge implications for the global marketplace and in turn, investment in the sector.
The statement from these Senators echoed the sentiment of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives late last year.
--> It focused on the social equity perspective and disproportionate criminalization of people of color in the War on Drugs. Further, that federal marijuana prohibition is critical to course correct, as well as measures that help elevate those who were unfairly targeted in the War on Drugs.
Given the Biden Administration's potential cannabis reform policy positions, and that the Senate is split with the Vice-President as the tiebreaker, the U.S. seems on the cusp of federal cannabis reform.
This is not the first time Senate Majority Leader Schumer has sponsored legislation to advance cannabis legalization.
While it's unclear which bills are being merged, it’s believed that Senator Schumer is alluding to a combined bill resembling the State’s Act, a measure supported by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Gardner, which includes the social justice provisions of the MORE Act.
Senator Schumer also appears to be addressing other obstacles such as taxation and banking. While the MORE Act does not create a commercial cannabis industry, it affects social, criminal, and racial justice reforms surrounding the cannabis plant.
---> Ultimately, it would deschedule cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.
The State’s Act appears to be a balanced bill that will assist the commercial industry in moving forward and provide stability in a variety of ways combined with the racial, social, and criminal justice elements of the MORE Act.
---> This measure is designed to keep the FDA from imposing additional regulations on it.
There’s also the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act that has been sitting patiently before the Senate for more than a year.
This could also part of Schumer’s merger. The Act would be
--> the first step in the government’s recognition of the economic value of the cannabis industry.
In the uncertain times we find ourselves living through, it’s never been more apparent how much that is needed.
The SAFE Banking Act provides that federal regulators shall not interfere in the actions of a depository institution dealing with state-legal cannabis businesses.
Further, it protects financial institutions that choose to do business with cannabis companies in legal states and provides clarity so that federal regulators cannot interfere with or punish financial institutions for working with legitimate cannabis-related businesses.
The merger and subsequent passing of cannabis reform measures might be an ambitious endeavor in 2021.
However, given the economic landscape of a post-COVID world,
---> cannabis may prove to be a shining light.
We don't know how quickly the Biden Administration will move to sanction and reform other policy measures requiring more immediate attention.
Yet, all of this comes on the heels of the United Nations voting in late 2020 to reclassify cannabis.
We are seeing cannabis policy reform advance on a global scale.
Just this past week, Mexico legalized commercial cannabis opening the world’s largest market.
Taken all together, the pieces are coming together to advance cannabis policy reform in the United States, which will have huge ramifications internationally.
A lawful, global commercial cannabis industry is on the horizon.
This creates enormous opportunities for a post-prohibition, worldwide, commercial marketplace — with the U.S. at the center of the action.