A former GOP congressman says he expects Republicans will be \u201cmore comfortable voting yes\u201d for incremental marijuana reform measures like a banking access bill for the industry now that the administration is moving to reschedule cannabis.<\/p>\n
Former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-founder Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) both discussed the future prospects of marijuana policy during a webinar hosted by the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) last week.<\/p>\n
Blumenauer, a leading champion of marijuana reform efforts over five decades, agreed with Davis that the rescheduling decision from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)<\/a> will \u201copen the floodgates\u201d for additional congressional action such as passage of a bipartisan cannabis banking bill.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to make it much easier to have other items that are queued up,\u201d the Democratic congressman said. \u201cWith this, it\u2019s going to be a matter of time before we get movement in the Senate\u2014dealing with the banking issue, which is long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTaking it to Schedule III is, first of all a signal, that people recognize that the current scheduling process is completely wrong, flawed and unfair,\u201d Blumenauer said. \u201cIt takes care of a major problem that we\u2019ve faced.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis, meanwhile, was asked how he thought the potential Schedule III reclassification would affect broader congressional marijuana reform efforts.<\/p>\n The former GOP lawmaker, who sponsored bipartisan legislation to provide for federal marijuana expungements in 2022 before retiring, said that \u201cI think they\u2019ll be more comfortable voting yes,\u201d adding that the rescheduling move is \u201ca great step.\u201d<\/p>\n Join us tomorrow for an exciting conversation with longtime cannabis reform champion @repblumenauer<\/a>. We\u2019ll discuss yesterday\u2019s historic news out of the DEA and also drill down on the SAFE Banking Act, which the Congressman co-sponsored. RSVP here: https:\/\/t.co\/3j2AAytLoY<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/SjQ4fQDslo<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 US Cannabis Council (@USCannabisCncl) May 1, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cThis is an opportunity for the administration to put forth their vision and then move that vision into a reality,\u201d Davis said. He added that while there\u2019s been talk about the Biden administration politically benefitting from championing cannabis reform, it\u2019s an \u201cissue that affects all demographics, it affects all races and it affects everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Blumenauer also gave credit to President Joe Biden for the modest steps that the administration has taken, saying while the issue has \u201cnot been strong suit\u201d for the president, he deserved applause for granting a pair of mass marijuana pardons and initiating the scheduling review despite holding \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about cannabis itself.<\/p>\n The congressman also reiterated his belief that the Justice Department would soon be reissuing marijuana enforcement discretion guidances that was rescinded under the Trump administration. He and the former DOJ official who authored the original memorandum told Marijuana Moment last week that they expect it will be expanded to account for societal changes around the issue<\/a>, as well as the rescheduling push.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is something that matters to people across the board,\u201d he said. \u201cRodney said, fairly, that this affects young and old. It\u2019s red state, blue state. We\u2019ve watched red state voters overcome the opposition from the Republican legislators who have tried to torpedo this, and slowly but surely, we\u2019re starting to see more Republicans get on board in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been working on this longer than any elected official in the country. This is my 51st year,\u201d he said. \u201cNo politician has ever been punished for being on the right side of history and the right side of cannabis. Indeed, the Democrats wouldn\u2019t be in control of the Senate if it weren\u2019t for cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n Blumenauer also weighed in on the prospects of advancing a marijuana banking bill, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act. He noted that it\u2019s passed the House in some form seven times now, but the reform has so far ultimately gone to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell\u2019s (R-KY) \u201clegislative hospice to die.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, McConnell is not the majority leader, so he doesn\u2019t have that capacity to torpedo it,\u201d Blumenauer said. \u201cAnd it is a priority with Democratic leadership. It\u2019s got bipartisan support in the Senate. I\u2019m quite confident that, regardless of which avenue we take, this is something that can happen this session, and I hope sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate sources say McConnell is raising issues with the banking reform again, leading leaders to abandon plans<\/a> to attach it to must-pass Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization legislation. But Schumer has signaled that the possibility isn\u2019t entirely off the table yet, and he remains committed to advancing the policy change.<\/p>\n Davis, meanwhile, reiterated that the banking legislation \u201cis a long time coming, and whatever vehicle it takes to be able to move forward is what what cannabis advocates like like Earl and [Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH)] and others need to need to latch on to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad that this gets bipartisan support. There\u2019s going to be opposition, but in the end, there\u2019s so much bipartisan support for an issue such as SAFE Banking that it could stand alone,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of whether or not it can get called up to be able to have that vote once again.\u201d<\/p>\n But while both lawmakers have emphasized that they feel the move to reschedule marijuana will bolster other cannabis proposals this Congress, there has been key opposition to the incremental reform, including from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA)<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n Blumenauer and Davis both agreed that Scalise is out of touch on the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, ultimately, it\u2019s going to pose problematic issues for them politically,\u201d Blumenauer said. \u201cI think the number of people who are defenders of the failed war on drugs is shrinking dramatically. There are people who\u2019ve come along. They\u2019ve started to see the light.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis added that \u201cthe one thing about being an elected official, as time goes on, is sometimes you can get educated on the issue by your constituents as to how important a change in opinion might be. And let\u2019s hold out hope that Steve will change his opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden Should Release People In Prison For Marijuana, Criminal Defense Lawyers Group Tells White House<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post Marijuana Rescheduling Will Make Republicans \u2018More Comfortable\u2019 Voting For Banking And Other Reforms, Former GOP Congressman Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A former GOP congressman says he expects Republicans will be \u201cmore comfortable voting yes\u201d for incremental marijuana reform measures like a banking access bill for the industry now that the administration is moving to reschedule cannabis. Former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-founder Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"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\/75053"}],"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=75053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75054,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75053\/revisions\/75054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\nRead More: Marijuana Rescheduling Will Make Republicans \u2018More Comfortable\u2019 Voting For Banking And Other Reforms, Former GOP Congressman Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"