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Posted on 12/19/2021 7:55:21 AM PST by RandFan
Congressional Democrats are gearing up for a sweeping set of initiatives aimed at decriminalizing marijuana that they plan to take action on this spring.
The federal proposals seek to establish 21st century banking services for the nearly $18 billion industry and purge the criminal records of thousands of marijuana offenders.
“The growing bipartisan momentum for cannabis reform shows that Congress is primed for progress in 2022, and we are closer than ever to bringing our cannabis policies and laws in line with the American people,” Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wrote in a memo to the Congressional Cannabis Caucus on Thursday.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans — including roughly half of Republicans — support legalizing marijuana, the memo noted citing a 2020 Gallup poll. The past year saw five states join in allowing recreational cannabis — New Mexico, New Jersey, Virginia and Connecticut — as well as "a wealth of policy ideas" in Congress "targeted at ending cannabis prohibition," the lawmakers noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
At the very least allow banking for weed businesses in the states where it is legal.
Ping
This is NOT a Federal matter. Geez...they think they gotta be in everything.
Gotta get that under 30 margin back up to 50%. But it won’t help. People who want to use pot are already finding ways to do it.
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We truly have an utterly unconstitutional totalitarian federal government now - one that has completely shed the sole authorization of the Constitution for any federal act.
Amazingly, the Right generally seems to go along with it.
I still hold out for the miraculous restoration of our Free Constitutional Republic but it will take the same Hand of Divine Providence that miraculously birthed the nation to do so.
Banking and their rules are federalized I believe...
Decriminalize or Legalize?
Legalization requires a lot of regulation. Do they have that ready?
I don’t see legalization happening.
The Senate GOP won’t go for it (although it’s pretty close thing numbers wise I think)
Perhaps banking reform is the most that can get done so those pot businesses in certain states can get banking...
Yes, reaffirm the federal ban on pot and all commerce associated with it. Or, maybe a 100% federal tax on it.
Here’s the funny part: If they take away anti-marijuana laws, they basically make every drug sniffing dog out there obsolete. A dog that “indicates” on a legal substance is worthless.
And this is a good thing. Drug dogs and lie detector tests are two of the worst tools used by law enforcement to violate people’s rights.
In Washington State during my lifetime, we always had almost no enforcement of marijuana laws. Illegal sales were already close to a $1 billion. It didn’t seem like it would make much of a difference.
The legal marijuana industry now has $2 billion in sales far more than both alcohol and tobacco combined. There is an excise tax of 37% on marijuana plus approximately 10% in sales taxes... the highest taxes of any legal marijuana state in the country. Add to this very lax enforcement almost to the point of non-existent enforcement and there is a strong incentive for a black market. And indeed illegal marijuana sales have more than doubled. Washington state has been flooded with marijuana.
What is it like when over $4 billion of marijuana is being burned in the places where you live and work? It ain’t perty!!! In the place where we live you can’t drive down the road without the skunk like odor filling your car from drivers smoking pot in the cars ahead of you. You can’t leave your windows open at night without the smell of marijuana saturating your house.
In most of the cities in Western Washington homelessness has gone up 50% or more in recent years. It smells like a marijuana bonfire when you pass the camps which now seem like they are everywhere.
The Democrats own this mess; I would think that there will eventually be some type of backlash.
Indeed look how messed up states are that made it legal here in California many of the 6th and 7th graders are stoned before classes start.
I live near a school you can see it every day.
The dims are following what has happened in Colorado. That state legalized marijuana and now the Mexican cartels have set up huge area where they are growing. I’m sure some of their profits and product make their way to Washington.
So, their thinking is to help their donors by spreading the drug growing operations all over the country.
If Congress does not let experience have a longer say in “decriminalization” then the nation may well regret it.
What has followed marijuana decriminalization in California; the end of marijuana based drug related criminal activity, as proponents of decriminalization suggested? No. Marijuana based illegal activity is exploding with illegal marijuana growers competing with and corrupting the legal marijuana trade.
The experience of things in the states that have already decriminalized marijuana has to be observed for some many years more before any additional decriminalization moves are made. And even then, should it be a federal matter other than the federal government leaving it to the states?
What is it like when over $4 billion of marijuana is being burned in the places where you live and work? It ain’t perty!!! In the place where we live you can’t drive down the road without the skunk like odor filling your car from drivers smoking pot in the cars ahead of you. You can’t leave your windows open at night without the smell of marijuana saturating your house.
In most of the cities in Western Washington homelessness has gone up 50% or more in recent years. It smells like a marijuana bonfire when you pass the camps which now seem like they are everywhere.
If things are bad now in your state, California and other states, just wait until Biden and our Congress get their teeth into this huge untaxed morsel across our fruited plains.
Then, we will have Big Mary Jane at the private level, city/county level and state level with congre$$ taxing, creating new bureaus to fund and regulate every level of the growth of MJ, harvesting, marketing and of course taxing it at the various levels.
Also, how will the Mexican Cartels handle this possibly huge loss of their product and sales?
Think about that! That's just the medicinal/recreational use.
Texas Department of Agriculture Industrial Hemp Program
Industrial hemp is another multi-billion dollar industry just waiting to happen.
Should have been reform for banking use already and Trump discussed addressing this.
I'm not seeing any more than that in the Rat proposals. And if there is, the constitutionalist response is to beat them to the punch by passing a simple federal withdrawal. I support that - do you?
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