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An Arizona House committee has approved a bill to authorize interstate marijuana commerce, pending a change in federal policy.<\/p>\n
After initially rejecting the legislation from Rep. Justin Wilmeth (R) in a split 5-5 vote on Wednesday, the House Commerce Committee reconsidered the measure later in the meeting, reversing course and approving it, 6-4.<\/p>\n
If ultimately enacted, Arizona would be joining three other West coast states\u2014California, Oregon and Washington State\u2014that have already adopted laws allowing their governors to enter into agreements to permit marijuana imports and exports between consenting jurisdictions, all of which are principally contingent on federal law changing or guidance explicitly tolerating the commerce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I\u2019m running this is because I\u2019m a big believer in interstate commerce,\u201d Wilmeth, who chairs the committee, said at the hearing. \u201cAnd my understanding is, if we don\u2019t do something like this before the feds legalize it, then we would have to wait a year, maybe two years, for our statute to catch up to whatever the feds do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could legalize it next week or in 10 years. We really don\u2019t know. But the point of me running this bill this year, this moment, is to be prepared so that when it does come, we can go off to the races and our marijuana industry can be be successful and beneficial in every way possible,\u201d the chairman said<\/a>. \u201cObviously, that topic is divisive. Some people don\u2019t like marijuana. I\u2019ve never used this stuff. I don\u2019t care for it either. But that\u2019s not the question of this bill today. It is merely about the commercial commerce side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Arizona bill<\/a>, interstate cannabis commerce agreements would need to \u201censure enforceable public health and safety standards and include a system to regulate and track the interstate delivery of marijuana and marijuana products.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 The head of the Department of Health Services (DHS) would be required to notify the legislature if federal policy changes in a way that meets the bill\u2019s conditions for implementation.<\/p>\n California\u2019s interstate commerce law that was enacted in 2022 provided more flexibility<\/a>, allowing the governor to initiate the import and export agreements if the state attorney general issued a legal opinion saying there would be insignificant risk of federal enforcement action over the potential arrangements.<\/p>\n However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta\u2019s (D) office ultimately concluded last December that it could not rule out that possible federal response<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oregon was the first state to enact interstate marijuana commerce legislation in 2019<\/a>, followed by Washington State last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, last month plaintiffs in a federal court case centered on cross-border marijuana trade<\/a> voluntarily withdrew their lawsuit against the state of Oregon, providing no public explanation for the move beyond saying that \u201cbig things are coming on this front very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Other states where cannabis is legal have considered passing similar legislation to allow cross-border trade.<\/p>\n For example, New Jersey\u2019s Senate president reintroduced an interstate marijuana commerce bill last month<\/a>. And a legislative committee in Maine rejected similar legislation<\/a>, but the chair said the matter could be revisited through another vehicle.<\/p>\n While the federal government hasn\u2019t weighed in on state-sanctioned interstate marijuana commerce, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said last year that the Justice Department is \u201cstill working on a marijuana policy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n To that end, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recommended moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the CSA, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is in the process of completing its review before making a final determination.<\/p>\n Moving cannabis to Schedule III\u00a0could have a wide range of policy impacts<\/a>, but it\u2019s unclear what, if anything, it would mean for the possibility of interstate cannabis commerce given that marijuana would remain federally illegal even if it\u2019s reclassified.<\/p>\n South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Requiring Medical Marijuana Patients To Acknowledge Federal Gun Ban<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Arizona Lawmakers Approve Bill To Allow Interstate Marijuana Commerce<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
An Arizona House committee has approved a bill to authorize interstate marijuana commerce, pending a change in federal policy. After initially rejecting the legislation from Rep. Justin Wilmeth (R) in a split 5-5 vote on Wednesday, the House Commerce Committee reconsidered the measure later in the meeting, reversing course andContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":72505,"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\/72504"}],"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=72504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72506,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72504\/revisions\/72506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Arizona Lawmakers Approve Bill To Allow Interstate Marijuana Commerce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"