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Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses and Medical Professionals Act, pitching it as an overdue corrective to outdated federal cannabis policy.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.
The local classic rock station is in a college town and on Wednesdays, the pro-pot folks take over. They often have a woman from an advocacy group that helps get people out of prison who are there for possession. Yesterday she talked about a guy who was sentenced to 20 years with no chance of parole for possession of 1 lb of pot. He had already served ten years and they got him re-sentenced and released and the Judge granted clemency. There are a lot of people serving insanely long prison stints for possession of pot here in MO I guess.
Go back and sloooowly read your post. The drugs are already available. They have been available for decades on the black market. I have been smoking weed for 25+ years (I'm also a working, successful white collar tax paying productive member of society who raised 2 kids to be the same and am raising two kids that aren't mine to be the same, so GTFO with the idiot pot makes people useless comments).
The drugs are here. This will not make more available. They already are, and that is evidenced in your comment about OTR drivers being rare. Why are they rare? Because they can't pass drug tests because they are taking drugs that are already here.
Chances are, you've never tried pot yourself, nor do you know anyone with mental illness issues that are treated by it. I have, and I have. I've personally watched pot stop a seizure in its tracks. I've personally watched people who have been in pain for years try it for the first time and realize it does indeed have pain killing properties. Pot is far better than having the opiate problems we do today, but I guess opiates are good with you because they are "legal".
Making half-aced, ignorant and uninformed comments about stuff you know nothing about doesn't help your cause.
Methinks there are many habitual pot users here on FR.
You should research the issue a bit more. That is happening in states all over that have legalized. There is a standard here in Colorado: To be arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana in Colorado, a driver needs to test positive for five nanograms of active tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
“Does the bill include a federal tax? That would be appropriate, as well as a federal license to sell and a required ID card to purchase.”
How about federal tax and licensing requirements for alcohol?
Sure. The mafia makes millions every year off sports betting, so let’s ban sports. Profit opportunity removed!
This country has no drug problems, right?
“OTR drivers are rare as hen’s teeth now due to NOT being able to pass drug tests....”
You know, the truck drivers were always high, the only thing that changed is we started testing them...
Really, the feds should just bill back to each state a proportionate share of the budget and the states should figure out how to pay it. We should never give a dime to the feds directly.
Yes, in principle I can agree but first we need to slash the federal government down to its core mission - defense of the nation and managing the federal courts. Almost all of the rest of the budget is pork and graft of some kind or another.
The Constitution grants the federal government no authority over pot that doesn't cross state lines.
There is no Constitutional argument for federal involvement in within-state marijuana policy.
Methinks there are many habitual pot users here on FR.
Could be. How is that responsive to what I posted (above)?
The fact that it does is an argument against the criminalization under which those problems are occurring.
Actually the Constitution does not specifically regulate or mention most of what the Federal government does. The FDA, Federal regulatory agencies, drug laws, abortion etc have all been deemed “constitutional” along the couse of the American parade. Sorry but virtually anything can be deemed “constitutional” or “unconstitutional” depending who is in power. Soon it will be “constitutional” under Democratic rule that UN pronouncements have the force of law. Drugged Americans won’t know or care. Decadence has consequences.
And now we know why we have a shortage of truck drivers
Yes, a lot of pot supporters. I recall Boehner, though not often popular on FR, never by me. Once he left Congress, so did his conservative values if he really had any. He’s now leading pot spokesman. A lot of so-called conservatives, Hastert comes to mind, have some skeletons in their closets that seem to only come out publicly once the leave Congress. Gaetz is a new one, but he’s still in Congress for the moment. And yet, through all, there will be people making excuses for them all.
Conservatives oppose twisting the Constitution to favor predetermined ends; right-statists may feel differently.
If trucking firms are using the standard marijuana test that detects use from as long as weeks ago, they should stop shooting themselves in the foot.
I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your statement, but I have a question. (I have a strategic reason for remaining neutral.)
Should employer penalties attached to employee actions under the influence of cannabis be relaxed if it becomes legal?
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