Posted on 05/13/2021 6:54:09 AM PDT by NobleFree
Republican congressmen on Wednesday introduced a bill that would decriminalize cannabis federally, direct federal regulators to develop rules overseeing its sale and grant safe harbor to financial institutions that bank with the industry.
Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Ark. introduced the bill, entitled the Common Sense Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses and Medical Professionals Act, pitching it as an overdue corrective to outdated federal cannabis policy.
"With more than 40 states taking action on this issue, it's past time for Congress to recognize that continued cannabis prohibition is neither tenable nor the will of the American electorate," Joyce said in a statement.
The bill would remove cannabis from the federal schedule of controlled substances only once federal regulators, including the U.S.Food and Drug Administration and Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the Treasury Department, issue rules to regulate marijuana.
"Such rules shall, to the extent practicable, be similar to federal rules regulating alcohol," according to the bill. The agencies would have a year to develop those rules upon passage of the act.
In addition to descheduling cannabis, the bill would shield banks and any other service providers that do business with legal cannabis entities from criminal liability. It would also allow physicians to recommend cannabis treatment for veterans in jurisdictions with medical marijuana programs.
"This bill takes significant steps to modernize our laws by removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and allowing the VA to prescribe medical cannabis to veterans, in addition to finally permitting state-legal cannabis businesses to utilize traditional financial services," Young said in a statement.
The bill has the backing of some cannabis advocacy organizations, including the omnibus group U.S. Cannabis Council, launched earlier this year, the National Medicinal Cannabis Coalition and the National Cannabis Roundtable.
"It is incredibly encouraging to see Republican leadership to end the federal prohibition and criminalization of cannabis," Steven W. Hawkins, interim president and CEO of the U.S. Cannabis Council, said in a statement. "Cannabis reform is truly a bipartisan matter ripe for immediate solution.
The 14-page bill made its debut ahead of a more comprehensive piece of cannabis reform legislation that has been teased for months by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. That legislation is expected to emphasize restorative justice, expungement of convictions, community reinvestment and public health, the lawmakers have said, but its details have not been released.
Shortly after Joyce and Young announced their bill, Schumer tweeted on Wednesday that he and the other senators were continuing to refine the legislation. "We must finally end the federal prohibition on marijuana, advance criminal justice reform and ensure equity for communities impacted by the War on Drugs," he said.
Other federal cannabis reform bills introduced this session include the SAFE Banking bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April on a 321-101 vote. That bill would shield from legal liability banks and other financial institutions that do business with state-legal cannabis entities.
Should employer penalties attached to employee actions under the influence of cannabis be relaxed if it becomes legal?
My daughter told me a funny story when they legalized marijuana in Washington state. She lived there. She said that the day the vote passed, people everywhere were celebrating by getting stoned. The next day, a lot of employers did random drug testing and got rid of a lot of people that would have otherwise been difficult to terminate. It’s still illegal, federally. :)
But if it is legal federally and at the state level, is it no longer a reason for termination?
IMO, it should be treated like alcohol - any residual effects in the system when you show up for work should be treated as a firing offense. However, how does one differentiate between measurable THC and measurable effects of THC?
I do not necessarily disagree that it should be legalized, but I have concerns about employers getting shafted with liability they cannot legally control.
It means you violated federal law. That was, apparently, grounds for termination.
Any empoyer has the natural right to set any employment conditions they deem fit; I'm not aware of any impediment in state or federal law to saying 'no use of legal mind-altering drug X (alcohol, marijuana, whatever) or you're fired'
States want federal money.
How do you Fedzilla gets them to do anything?
How do you think we got a standard BAC number passed for all 50?
In cases like this, I have zero prob with federal blackmail.
This pro-Constitution, pro-limited government site may not be the place for you. I hear DU is big on Fedzilla ...
Set employment standards?!
ROTF!
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/new-york-law-protects-employee-1275108/
States don’t have to accept federal money.
There’s zero in the constitution about states getting free money from Fedzilla.
Did you have a cow about Fedzilla strong-arming states to get the .08 BAC standard in all 50?
There’s zero in the constitution about states getting free money from Fedzilla.
There’s zero in the constitution about Fedzilla directing funds toward anything outside their enumerated powers.
Like I said ...
I firmly opposed it. (I'm not prone to having cows.)
You didn’t answer my question about withholding federal funds in states didn’t approve the .08 BAC...
You have a problem with that, too?
Thanks for the reply.
There’s nothing in the Constitution that forbids withholding those funds for that purpose, or a similar purpose.
And as someone once put it, the Constitution is not a suicide pact.
But now that I think about it...
This is all moot.
We’re no longer a republic.
So NYS violates natural law - can’t say I’m shocked. I don’t see where an employer could be held liable, criminally or civilly, for not taking actions it was illegal to take.
“An employer does not violate section 201-d of the Labor Law based on employee cannabis use when:
“The employer’s actions were required by state or federal statute, regulation, ordinance, or other state or federal government mandate;
“The employee is impaired by the use of cannabis, meaning the employee manifests specific articulable symptoms while working that decrease or lessen the employee’s performance of the duties or tasks of the employee’s job position, or such specific articulable symptoms interfere with an employer’s obligations to provide a safe and healthy work place, free from recognized hazards, as required by state and federal occupational safety and health law; or
“The employer’s actions would require such employer to commit any act that would cause the employer to be in violation of federal law or would result in the loss of a federal contract or federal funding.”
You misunderstand the Constitution. The feds aren't authorized to do whatever the Constitution doesn't explicitly forbid - the feds are forbidden to do whatever the Constitution doesn't explicitly authorize.
“the feds are forbidden to do whatever the Constitution doesn’t explicitly authorize.”
The 10th Amendment is a dead letter, unfortunately.
L
People who support drug legalization have lost their minds
Conservatives should at a minimum support any movement in the direction of what the federal government is authorized to be - such as the bill that is the subject of the posted article.
People who support drug legalization have lost their minds
Is that a "yes, I'm against federal adherence to the Constitution"?
I am not a lawyer. However, I have noted that liability is not always a LEGAL decision - it is often left to the discretion of people who understand neither the underlying law or the reasons for that law.
Someone will hold the bag on this, and I am willing to make a wager it will not be the stoner employee. There's not enough money there to matter.
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