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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to keep the \u201cbig boys\u201d out of the marijuana industry in favor of creating opportunities for smaller operators when cannabis is federally legalized, and he says that his upcoming bill would accomplish that.<\/p>\n
In a conversation between Schumer and New York\u2019s top state cannabis regulator that was hosted on Black Enterprise\u2019s marijuana vertical, the majority leader talked about modeling federal reform legislation after the state\u2019s recently enacted marijuana law, with a particular focus on social equity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking a page from New York\u2019s book and trying to do basically what you did nationally,\u201d he told former Democratic Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright, who now chairs the state\u2019s Cannabis Control Board. \u201cWhat it will do is ensure that Americans in all communities won\u2019t be arrested or barred from receiving services for using cannabis where it\u2019s legal because the state\u2019s making legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSchumer emphasized in the Green Entrepreneur interview that the bill he\u2019s working on alongside Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is being designed with small businesses in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want the big boys to come in,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter all the pain that\u2019s been occurring in communities like the one you represent in Brooklyn, where I\u2019m from\u2014to have the big boys come in and make all the money makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s made similar remarks in the past, stressing that his reform bill will take specific steps to restrict the ability of large alcohol and tobacco companies<\/a> to overtake the industry.<\/p>\n The majority leader also talked about the distribution of tax revenue from marijuana sales under his Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that the money that\u2019s made doesn\u2019t just go into the federal treasury, but goes into good kinds of activities in terms of restorative justice, dealing with community violence initiatives and dealing with so many other things\u2014community centers and things that will have kids have a great place to go and some hope so they won\u2019t get caught up by the drug dealers and anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n I was thrilled to support the #MRTA<\/a>\u2014New York’s historic marijuana legalization\u2014and to sit down with Tremaine Wright who is leading its implementation.<\/p>\n We are working to bring the progress we’ve made in New York to the federal level. https:\/\/t.co\/MfO9wk4L97<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 17, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Also in the conversation, Schumer addressed the elephant in the room: Can a comprehensive legalization bill actually pass in Congress?<\/p>\n \u201cThe answer is yes,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst, we\u2019re getting some Republican support in the country. And second, the country is realizing that all the myths about marijuana are just that myths. I think we\u2019ve got a real shot. We\u2019re gonna keep working at it till we get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone is so confident, however. And many industry stakeholders have made the case that leadership should advance more modest, bipartisan reform to simply protect banks that service state-legal cannabis businesses first since it arguably stands a stronger chance of passage.<\/p>\n Schumer said in September, however, that he and his colleagues have an \u201cagreement\u201d that the body will not take up cannabis banking legislation<\/a> until more comprehensive legislation moves.<\/p>\n That said, he\u2019s open to exploring an alternative way of advancing banking reform if lawmakers are able to incorporate social equity provisions of legalization\u2014such as expungements for prior cannabis convictions\u2014into separate defense policy legislation that the chamber will be taking up soon.<\/p>\n \u2014 While the senator has previously expressed reluctance to advancing marijuana banking reform first\u2014including in\u00a0an interview with Marijuana Moment in April<\/a>\u2014the recent statement about an \u201cagreement\u201d to block the financial services reform put the situation in starkest terms yet.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, several Republican members of Congress introduced a bill on Monday to federally legalize and tax marijuana<\/a> as an alternative to pending far-reaching, Democratic-led reform proposals and scaled-down GOP cannabis descheduling legislation.<\/p>\n Beyond the Schumer bill, there\u2019s also legalization legislation that cleared the House Judiciary Committee<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n Bipartisan Pennsylvania Senators Announce Medical Marijuana Home Grow Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Schumer Wants To Keep \u2018Big Boys\u2019 Out Of Marijuana Industry And Says Legalization Bill Is Passable<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to keep the \u201cbig boys\u201d out of the marijuana industry in favor of creating opportunities for smaller operators when cannabis is federally legalized, and he says that his upcoming bill would accomplish that. In a conversation between Schumer and New York\u2019s top stateContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":51228,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51227"}],"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=51227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51229,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51227\/revisions\/51229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Schumer Wants To Keep \u2018Big Boys\u2019 Out Of Marijuana Industry And Says Legalization Bill Is Passable<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"