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Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) says that a standalone marijuana banking reform bill \u201crequires changes\u201d if it\u2019s going to advance before cannabis is federally legalized.<\/p>\n
The senator, who is one of the three prime sponsors of a recently filed measure to comprehensively end prohibition, didn\u2019t get into the specifics of what revisions he wants to see made to the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act\u2014but he said in a statement on Wednesday that industry equity for communities harmed by the drug war must be a priority.<\/p>\n
While Booker has made several recent comments about his openness to moving more incremental cannabis legislation, including protections for banks that work with state-legal marijuana businesses despite previously saying he would block the financial reform, his latest remarks come amid a push by current and former cannabis regulators to make a series of equity-centric amendments<\/a> to the standalone bill.<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, largely Black and Brown communities have been disproportionately harmed by the prohibition of marijuana and are subsequently underrepresented in the emerging billion-dollar cannabis industry,\u201d he said in a press release that coincided with an event hosted by Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition (CRCC), which released a paper this week on the need for SAFE Banking revisions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all agree that the path to ensuring true equity within the marijuana industry starts with decriminalizing cannabis at the federal level,\u201d Booker said. \u201cBefore moving forward, legislation like SAFE Banking requires changes to ensure that the communities most harmed by our broken marijuana policies receive support and small cannabis businesses can have the same access to capital as large multi-state operators.\u201d<\/p>\n The senator didn\u2019t explicitly endorse any of CRCC\u2019s proposed amendments in the comment he provided for the group\u2019s event, but the regulators\u2019 recommendations for SAFE Banking, which has passed the House in some form seven times now, are designed to achieve that fundamental goal of enhanced equity within the marijuana market.<\/p>\n In its paper, CRCC called for 10 amendments, including ones to require financial institutions to prove compliance with anti-discrimination laws in order to receive the marijuana-specific protections offered under SAFE, require financial regulators to develop best practices to \u201cachieve racial equity\u201d in their services and expand federal study and reporting requirements to more holistically cover financial barriers faced by women-, minority- and equity-owned cannabis businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout additional legislative amendments to directly address challenges related to fair and equitable access to financial services, small and minority-owned cannabis businesses that currently have inadequate access to banking services or loans are likely to continue to be denied the full breadth and depth of services offered to others,\u201d the\u00a0paper<\/a> says.<\/p>\n Booker, as well as key lawmakers like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have been especially vocal about the need for comprehensive marijuana reform\u2014and they\u2019ve long been critical about the idea of advancing the standalone SAFE Banking Act as an interim step toward that broader goal.<\/p>\n But since filing the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA)<\/a> last month, the senators have softened their stance, expressing their willingness to reach a compromise<\/a> on a passable package of marijuana reforms that\u2019s been described as \u201cSAFE Banking Plus.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The details of that in-progress cannabis omnibus bill aren\u2019t known yet, but it\u2019s expected to contain equity components like bipartisan marijuana expungements proposals<\/a>\u2014and it\u2019s conceivable that lawmakers could also push to incorporate SAFE Banking amendments as outlined by the new CRCC paper.<\/p>\n Shaleen Title, a co-founder of CRCC and former Massachusetts cannabis regulator, said during Wednesday\u2019s virtual event that the reason she\u2019s optimistic about SAFE Banking \u201cfor the first time\u201d is because \u201clegislators and their staff and the public seem to have shifted on this versus, say, six months ago\u201d when equity considerations weren\u2019t receiving serious attention in the context of the bill.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is an interest in multiple avenues\u201d to enact the types of reforms outlined in the group\u2019s paper, she said. \u201cI hope this paper and these recommendations are a good starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n Schumer has been holding high-level talks with bipartisan and bicameral offices as lawmakers work to put a cannabis reform package together. And while the timeline isn\u2019t clear, Booker said he expects to see movement on the yet-to-be-released proposal\u00a0 during the lame duck period between November\u2019s elections and the start of a new Congress in January.<\/p>\n Booker initially signaled that he was coming around to marijuana banking reform (contingent on equity provisions) at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing<\/a>\u00a0last month that he convened as chairman.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the bicameral sponsors of the SAFE Banking Act, Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), laid out\u00a0next steps for the cannabis banking reform<\/a>\u00a0last month at a briefing organized by the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC).<\/p>\n Also at that briefing, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said that he recently spoke with Booker about the pathway for marijuana reform this session, and they had a \u201cgreat conversation\u201d about finding areas of compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the senator is fully aware of the consequences of this failed policy of prohibition in terms of what it does with the SAFE Banking Act and the threat that is made to the very communities he wants to support,\u201d the congressman said in response to a question from Marijuana Moment. \u201cI think he\u2019s trying to be able to thread the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n Perlmutter also said in a recent interview that he feels the introduction of CAOA alone in the Senate means that\u00a0lawmakers have overcome a legislative \u201churdle\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s kept SAFE Banking from advancing in the chamber.<\/p>\n California Senator\u2019s Last-Minute Deal To Remove LSD Couldn\u2019t Save Psychedelics Bill, But He Sees A Path Forward<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Cory Booker Says Marijuana Banking Bill \u2018Requires Changes\u2019 As Regulators Push Equity Amendments<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) says that a standalone marijuana banking reform bill \u201crequires changes\u201d if it\u2019s going to advance before cannabis is federally legalized. The senator, who is one of the three prime sponsors of a recently filed measure to comprehensively end prohibition, didn\u2019t get into the specifics of whatContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":56659,"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\/56658"}],"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=56658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56660,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56658\/revisions\/56660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Cory Booker Says Marijuana Banking Bill \u2018Requires Changes\u2019 As Regulators Push Equity Amendments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"