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A GOP senator who is the top cosponsor of marijuana banking legislation<\/a> is now, on the other hand, also seeking to prevent people from using federal financial assistance at cannabis dispensaries as part of a new large-scale welfare bill.<\/p>\n Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the lead Republican sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, included language in a separate welfare-related bill that would make it so people could not use Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds at \u201cany establishment that offers marihuana\u2026for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n A standalone bill that would singularly enact that policy change was reintroduced in the House last week<\/a> by Reps. Tom Rice (R-SC) Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN).<\/p>\n Daines did not directly address the cannabis provision in a press release on his new broader welfare bill<\/a> last week but argued that the overall legislation \u201crecognizes that there is dignity and hope in work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to do more to give Montana families a hand-up, not simply a handout, and provide the resources they need to secure a brighter future,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a\u00a0memo<\/a> on an earlier version of the standalone House measure, the provision would prohibit people \u201cfrom using welfare benefit cards for purchases at stores that sell marijuana, as well as forbids the withdrawal of welfare cash at ATMs in such stores.\u201d<\/p>\n But activists say the bill unfairly targets the most vulnerable people and perpetuates marijuana stigmas.<\/p>\n The title of the provision itself\u2014the \u201cWelfare for Needs not Weed\u201d\u2014has on its own drawn the ire of legalization advocates who argue it unnecessarily plays into negative cannabis stereotypes. They also argue that it\u2019s inappropriate to tell medical cannabis patients they can\u2019t use funds for their medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans shouldn\u2019t be discriminated against under the law for responsible cannabis consumption, period,\u201d NORML Political Director Justin Strekal told Marijuana Moment. \u201cRich or poor, be they bankers or unemployed, it\u2019s the principle of the matter. Senator Daines should rescind his support for this anti-American policy and throw his weight behind comprehensive efforts to respect civil rights by descheduling cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 In 2018, the House Committee On Ways and Means\u00a0approved a prior version of the legislation as part of a broader jobs bill<\/a>, but it was not enacted into law.<\/p>\n This session, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and 17 cosponsors introduced<\/a> a House version<\/a> of Daines\u2019s broader welfare reform bill that contains the anti-cannabis provision.<\/p>\n Beyond perpetuating stigmas, there\u2019s some earlier evidence indicating that the proposal wouldn\u2019t be efficacious.<\/p>\n Records obtained by National Review in 2014\u00a0showed<\/a>\u00a0that TANF recipients in Colorado used EBT cards to take out cash at cannabis dispensaries just 64 times, amounting to a total of \u201c$5,475 in public benefits.\u201d Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers there moved quickly to impose a statewide ban on the withdrawal of TANF benefits at dispensaries.<\/p>\n In other cannabis-related news of concern for lower-income people, the House Rules Committee declined to allow floor votes this week on amendments to large-scale spending legislation that would have made it so marijuana possession or consumption could not be used as the sole basis for denying people access to public housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Daines, for his part, cosigned a letter last month urging Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to schedule a vote on the cannabis banking legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n In May, his office released a video of a local Montana sheriff making the public safety case<\/a> for passing the the marijuana financial services bill.<\/p>\n House Approves Marijuana Banking, Employment And D.C. Sales Provisions In Large-Scale Spending Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post GOP Senator Sponsoring Marijuana Banking Bill Proposes Controversial Welfare Restrictions For Cannabis Purchases<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A GOP senator who is the top cosponsor of marijuana banking legislation is now, on the other hand, also seeking to prevent people from using federal financial assistance at cannabis dispensaries as part of a new large-scale welfare bill. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the lead Republican sponsor of the SecureContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":49189,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49190,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49188\/revisions\/49190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: GOP Senator Sponsoring Marijuana Banking Bill Proposes Controversial Welfare Restrictions For Cannabis Purchases<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"