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Members of Congress joined activists at a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the need for further federal marijuana policy reform beyond the incremental cannabis rescheduling process that the Trump administration is undertaking<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, pointed strong public support for broader marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cMillions of people across this country agree that cannabis should be legal. People understand that the old approach has failed. They understand that adults should not carry criminal records for possessing cannabis,\u201d she said. \u201cThey understand that we should be investing in education and economic opportunity, not mass incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is about damn time Congress caught up with where the American people are,\u201d Omar said.<\/p>\n But she also argued that \u201clegalization alone is not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we legalize cannabis and simply allow large corporations to make huge profits while the very communities destroyed by the War on Drugs are left behind, then we have failed. Cannabis reform must be about justice and repair. That means expunging the records of people arrested for nonviolent cannabis offenses. It means reinvesting in communities that were targeted for decades by discriminatory policies, and it means ensuring working class people small businesses and entrepreneurs have a real opportunity in participating in this new economy.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s about damn time Congress legalizes marijuana. pic.twitter.com\/lWBLBly28u<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) May 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), another Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair, also spoke at the press conference that is part what advocates are calling \u201cCannabis Week of Unity,\u201d<\/a> organized by a nationwide coalition that aims to push Congress toward comprehensive federal cannabis reform.<\/p>\n \u201cStates have been way ahead of the federal government the whole time,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do here now is bring the federal government up to the level of the states, because dragging behind is just not realistic and just doesn\u2019t make any sense\u2014morally, ethically, legally, health-wise, you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLook how many states allow the use of marijuana, whether it\u2019s medically or recreationally. I mean, let\u2019s catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Titus discussed several pieces of cannabis reform legislation she is sponsoring, including one that would allow federal drug officials to more fairly consider the evidence about marijuana\u2019s effects\u2014including why it is \u201cso much better than other things like maybe alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo let\u2019s do the research, get the facts that these folks need, so they can educate our members,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can advocate for this, and we can puff puff, pass that bill.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to puff, puff, pass the bill. As Co-Chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, I am working with the Cannabis Unity Coalition to decriminalize marijuana as a dangerous drug. The federal government needs to catch up to the states. @NORML<\/a> @DrugPolicyOrg<\/a> @lastprisonerprj<\/a>\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/JftlZHt6H3<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Dina Titus (@repdinatitus) May 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) appeared at the event as well, saying \u201cthere\u2019s never really been a logical path why marijuana is illegal, except for politics,\u201d citing the Nixon administration\u2019s use of cannabis criminalization as a way to oppress people of color, young people and the anti-war movement.<\/p>\n \u201cSo a lot of people went to jail,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cA lot of people away from their families, lost SNAP payments and other housing opportunities because of marijuana convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n Omar, the Cannabis Caucus co-chair, said the U.S. is \u201clong overdue for a rational, just and humane cannabis policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, we have spent billions of dollars enforcing a war on drugs that has failed and has devastated communities, ruined lives and disproportionately targeted Black, Brown and low-income Americans,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, we have a completely unjust and ridiculous system in America, where most states have now legalized cannabis for medical and recreational use, but federal law has continued to lag behind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat contradiction makes no sense. It hurts consumers, it hurts workers, it hurts small businesses and it only creates more chaos and inequity across this country. So let me be clear about what cannabis reform needed. What cannabis reforms are needed immediately. We must fully deschedule cannabis now. We must stop the federal hemp ban. We must fix the outrageous barriers facing legal legal cannabis businesses that cannot access banking services, and we must ensure that the millions of Americans living in legal cannabis states\u2014from our veterans who use medical marijuana to deal with pain and PTSD, to our public housing residents who are threatened with eviction for using legal product\u2014can finally do that without fear of federal punishment or government overreach.\u201d<\/p>\n Cohen, for his part, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) resisted marijuana rescheduling during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get the DEA to get something done. My history and experience has been that the DEA is the Strait of Hormuz for marijuana legislation,\u201d he said, comparing the agency to the waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which much of the world\u2019s oil trade passes but which has been blocked amid recent hostilities between Iran and the U.S. and Israel. \u201cYou have to go through it, but you can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Under an order signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last month, marijuana regulated by a state medical cannabis license immediately moved to Schedule III. Marijuana products such as those in state-legal recreational markets remain in Schedule I for now, however, subject to a hearing process this summer to consider broader rescheduling of cannabis.<\/p>\n While rescheduling eases barriers to research and gives state-licensed businesses access to tax benefits, it does not broadly legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n Representatives of several drug policy reform organizations also spoke at Wednesday\u2019s event, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, NORML, Marijuana Policy Project, Last Prisoner Project, Drug Policy Alliance, Latino Cannabis Alliance, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition and other groups.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile in Congress, the House is expected to consider an amendment this week to let military veterans receive recommendations for medical marijuana<\/a> through their doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)<\/p>\n The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies approved a bill last month containing provisions that would block federal officials from taking further steps to reschedule cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill and an attached report that expresses concerns about health risks from cannabis-derived products<\/a>, while also encouraging research into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics.<\/p>\n The full House also recently passed a Farm Bill with provisions aimed at aiding industrial hemp producers<\/a>\u2014but without any language to delay or alter the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products that\u2019s scheduled to take effect later this year.<\/p>\n A new report from the Congressional Research Service details the scope and limitations of the federal marijuana rescheduling move<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post It\u2019s \u2018About Damn Time\u2019 The Federal Government Catches Up To Voters On Marijuana Legalization, Congresswoman Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Members of Congress joined activists at a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the need for further federal marijuana policy reform beyond the incremental cannabis rescheduling process that the Trump administration is undertaking. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, pointed strong public support for broaderContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":85991,"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\/85990"}],"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\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85992,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85990\/revisions\/85992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
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\nRead More: It\u2019s \u2018About Damn Time\u2019 The Federal Government Catches Up To Voters On Marijuana Legalization, Congresswoman Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"