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Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) told Marijuana Moment in a new interview that he\u2019s \u201chappy to join the battle\u201d to reform federal cannabis laws\u2014and he\u2019s optimistic that his new bill on expunging federal misdemeanor marijuana convictions could build on bipartisan progress that\u2019s been made as congressional lawmakers work to craft a passable reform package that could include banking and other issues this session.<\/p>\n
The congressman is sponsoring two recently filed marijuana bills, both with Republican cosponsors: the Marijuana Misdemeanor Expungement Act<\/a> and the Capital Lending and Investment for Marijuana Businesses (CLIMB) Act<\/a>, which would allow state-legal cannabis companies to to be listed on national stock exchanges and access key financial services.<\/p>\n Carter isn\u2019t new to the issue. Before entering Congress, he served as a member of the Louisiana Senate Judiciary C Committee, where he was tasked with evaluating the state\u2019s criminal code. The experience further solidified his \u201cpassion for justice,\u201d he said in the Thursday interview.<\/p>\n Now that he\u2019s on Capitol Hill, he sees new opportunity for bipartisan collaboration. While he\u2019s a cosponsor of a wide-ranging cannabis legalization bill that cleared the House for the second time<\/a> in April, the congressman is cognizant of the need to find common ground to get reform through both chambers and to the president\u2019s desk, which will likely mean taking more incremental steps on the path to ending prohibition.<\/p>\n He applauded House and Senate colleagues for building the necessary infrastructure, saying that he\u2019s eager to \u201clend my experience and expertise as a longtime legislator and longtime advocate in this area to be able to bring some additional light to the great work that\u2019s been done.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that some of the most constructive work on marijuana policy this session is legislation that\u2019s yet to be finalized, however. In the weeks since Senate leadership filed a much-anticipated legalization bill<\/a>, the conversation has quickly shifted, with key lawmakers saying that there\u2019s promising momentum behind a package of incremental reforms<\/a> that\u2019s still in the works. Expungements\u2014along the lines of Carter\u2019s new standalone bill\u2014is said to be a key part of the talks, along with marijuana business banking access, among other issues.<\/p>\n Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), one of the three prime sponsors of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), said on Wednesday that the idea of a \u201cSAFE Banking Plus\u201d bill really is coming together. And despite his prior resistance to enacting modest reforms<\/a> like a standalone cannabis banking fix before legalization is enacted, he\u2019s at the table ready to compromise<\/a>, so long as the final product contains equity provisions like expungements<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the Marijuana Misdemeanor Expungement Act from Carter and Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) could come into play. Carter said that he sees the legislation as potentially \u201cadjunct\u201d to the cannabis omnibus bill, as well as another bipartisan measure from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Dave Joyce (R-OH) that would incentivize state-legal relief<\/a> for those who have been criminalized over marijuana.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s important to me is that none of my actions be viewed as competition to, or instead of\u2014but in addition to, to assist with, the movement of work that started before I got to Congress,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n Marijuana Moment spoke to Carter about a range of cannabis policy developments, from Louisiana to the federal level. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Rep. Troy Carter:<\/strong> I think it can serve as an adjunct. I think that what we\u2019ve attempted to do\u2014you know, we\u2019ve seen these measures fly and flop five or six times, and the American people need action. And so we should endeavor to continue to go back to the drawing board each time to come up with ways to add value to the great work that Sen. Booker and Schumer and [Reps.] Joyce, Perlmutter and so many others that have stood before me, Barbara Lee and others, and I can go on and on, Chairman Nadler, all of these these great leaders that have put forth from misdemeanor expungements, to SAFE Banking or CLIMB.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important to me is that none of my actions be viewed as competition to, or instead of\u2014but in addition to, to assist with, the movement of works that started before I got to Congress while I was working in the [Louisiana legislature].<\/p>\n I\u2019m just happy to join the battle, join the fight and lend my experience and expertise as a longtime legislator and longtime advocate in this area to be able to bring some additional light to the great work that\u2019s been done. So I\u2019m very careful when presenting these bills that, while I think we have some nuances that really give us an opportunity to be closer to the goalposts, because we talk about expungement, we talk about access to financing, we talk about expansion for [minority or women-owned] businesses, and these are all areas that, while we expand, we create opportunity for people of color, people that may not have otherwise had access to financing, to be able to get in the game, if you will.<\/p>\n That\u2019s in addition to, you know, you\u2019ve got 38 states where [cannabis is] legal, and somebody\u2019s sitting there with a ding on their record, or God forbid someone\u2019s sitting in a jail cell. That\u2019s unconscionable. We\u2019ve had good meetings with the White House. We\u2019ve had good meetings with leadership. And we continue to press.<\/p>\n TC:<\/strong> I\u2019m very happy about [the HOPE Act]. HOPE gives the opportunity to provide resources for states to do what I\u2019m attempting to do with with my bill on the federal level. So I think they complement each other, and I\u2019m hopeful that everyone will see it that way and that we will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to fix the problems that plague criminal justice reform, as well as the challenge that legal cannabis businesses have to access capital for expansion and or to start.<\/p>\n TC:<\/strong> It\u2019s been received well. It gives us an opportunity to have a broad range of options for financing. We know that people that want to be banked in the cannabis business can\u2019t, so we obviously know a person that wanted to start in the cannabis business couldn\u2019t get along do so. It couldn\u2019t go to [the Small Business Administration] or any of the other agencies that we might otherwise direct MBEs, WBEs or small business people period to go to access capital. This gives us an opportunity to open that\u2014to, one, create an opportunity so people can be banked. But also the opportunity to be able to be recognized by NASDAQ and by the stock exchange as a legitimate business enterprise.<\/p>\n [Denying marijuana industry access banking access means tax losses] because we\u2019re not accurately accounting for them because cash businesses are very elusive. These are tax dollars that could go into the coffers in providing for our communities, many of the issues that we so desperately [need to fund], whether it\u2019s health care, education, nutrition, housing or what have you. It makes perfect sense that we should be properly taxing and allowing businesses to expand. CLIMB really zeroes in on that, and that\u2019s what gave us the impetus and the energy to really go forward with it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a holistic approach to building from the work that so many others have done, and then taking my flavor from Louisiana and experience as a senator and former member of the House, to then kind of blend that together and use the resources of a lot of other big brains that have been at this table, mix it with some of my own Louisiana flavor, to come up with something that we hope will be a winning formula to get relief to the people.<\/p>\n \u2014 TC:<\/strong> Well, as a former member of the state Senate, I was very active in the entire criminal justice reform package of bills, serving on Judiciary C in the Senate is where many of the criminal justice bills were able to come through. And I have a passion for justice.<\/p>\n You know, Louisiana doesn\u2019t always get it right. But it looks like here\u2019s a case where we are, where we\u2019re recognizing that the necessity of true criminal justice reform means people that have been arrested, convicted or cited for minor violations should not block the way for police officers doing more serious job at getting rapists and murderers and the like [prosecuted].<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got 38 states that are legally providing sales of marijuana, yet we have people that have had their lives ruined for small amounts of marijuana, either through a misdemeanor or citation or conviction. Louisiana is on the right step of that, and I\u2019m proud to pick up where I left off as a member of the Senate now in the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n TC:<\/strong> Yeah, I think so. And I think even though this governor may be reluctant, I don\u2019t think that he would veto it and I don\u2019t think that he would stop it. He\u2019s been supportive of medicinal cannabis, and we know that the various people who have had medical issues that benefited as a result of cannabis use is something that is undeniable. So obviously, it would be great to to happen under this governor\u2019s watch. We know he has about a year and a half, so there\u2019s a session or two left in the barrel before he before he\u2019s out of there. We\u2019re hopeful that we\u2019re starting to see more and more Republicans and Democrats see the value, and this is one of those issues that should in fact be bipartisan.<\/p>\n MM: Lastly, I want to ask about WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to more than nine years in Russian prison<\/a> over a cannabis possession conviction on Thursday. Many advocates have said this is an injustice that underscores the need for domestic marijuana reform here. Do you share that sentiment?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n TC: Absolutely. I mean, this is playing out on the world stage for everyone to see. Brittney Griner, with a very small amount of cannabis oil for which she is legally prescribed caught in the switches of a political battle that she shouldn\u2019t have been in\u2014as many, many Americans have found themselves in similar situations. This gives us an opportunity to highlight the complexity, the hypocrisy and the urgency of, now, to level the field on these misdemeanors and on cannabis charges. Brittney Griner should not be in anyone\u2019s jail. Brittney Griner certainly should not have been sentenced to nine and a half years.<\/p>\n I\u2019m proud of the action that President Biden and the administration has taken. I wish we can do it all much faster. I wish it could have been done already. I wish she didn\u2019t have to spend one single day in jail. But we should use this as a shining example of the things that are wrong in our world, in our country, and recognize that we have opportunities now to fix it. And I think that any of the measures, whether it is with my Marijuana Misdemeanor Expungement Act or with HOPE or with SAFE or with CLIMB\u2014we\u2019ve got any number of tools or hybrids of all that can be incredible uses to move us in the right direction of real reform.<\/p>\n Advocates Demand Biden Take Marijuana Action After Brittney Griner Sentenced To Nine Years In Russian Prison For Vapes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post Congressman Says His Marijuana Expungements Bills Could Be \u2018Adjunct\u2019 To Reform Package With Banking<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) told Marijuana Moment in a new interview that he\u2019s \u201chappy to join the battle\u201d to reform federal cannabis laws\u2014and he\u2019s optimistic that his new bill on expunging federal misdemeanor marijuana convictions could build on bipartisan progress that\u2019s been made as congressional lawmakers work to craft aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":56383,"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\/56382"}],"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=56382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56384,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56382\/revisions\/56384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Marijuana Moment: Where do you see your legislation on expunging federal misdemeanor cannabis convictions fitting in with ongoing efforts to advance a passable reform package?<\/h3>\n
MM: Your bill focuses on federal cannabis convictions, whereas the Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement (HOPE) Act from Reps. Joyce and Ocasio-Cortez seeks to tackle the expungement issue at the state level. Do you view the bills as complementary?<\/h3>\n
MM: Your other recently filed legislation, the CLIMB Act, addresses cannabis industry access to national stock exchanges and financial services. What can you tell me about the origin of the proposal and how it\u2019s been received by your colleagues?<\/h3>\n
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\n\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\nMM: Speaking of Louisiana, the state legislature has enacted a number of cannabis reforms<\/a> in recent sessions, from possession decriminalization to banning police from using the odor of marijuana as probable cause for searches. How has that momentum in your home state informed your approach to the issue in Congress?<\/h3>\n
MM: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) is a rare example of a Democratic governor who remains opposed to adult-use legalization. He\u2019s said he feels the reform will come to Louisiana<\/a>, but it\u2019s unlikely to happen under his administration. Do you feel like the growing momentum we\u2019re seeing might change that calculus?<\/h3>\n
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\nRead More: Congressman Says His Marijuana Expungements Bills Could Be \u2018Adjunct\u2019 To Reform Package With Banking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"