Earlier on Thursday, April 4th, a bipartisan bill protecting state laws regulating marijuana use from the federal government was reintroduced in the House and Senate.
As per reports, Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and David Joyce (R-Ohio) introduced the legislation, which allows states to determine their own cannabis policies in the house while the same was offered by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the Senate and Reps.
According to sources close to the matter, The Bill which was originally put forward in the last Congress was applauded on Thursday, April 4th by The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA).
In a press release, the executive director of NCIA, Aaron Smith, said, “Regulating cannabis is successfully replacing illicit markets with licensed businesses in a growing number of states across the country. With the help of this legislation, those state regulatory programs will easily be able to succeed without any federal interference.”
Back in January, in a bid to push for the STATES Act, 15 lobbyists were hired by The Cannabis Trade Federation (CTF), a nonprofit to educate and advocate for cannabis in public policy.
In an interview with The Hill, Neal Levine, the CEO of CTF said, “The STATES Act, is a bipartisan bill that the president has said he will sign into law, So it’s the one piece of legislation from our intel that we think we have a legitimate chance to pass into law that would fundamentally address all of the major issues that the cannabis industry faces today.”
As per reports, the use of medical marijuana is legal in 33 states while the use of recreational marijuana is legal in the District of Columbia along with 10 other states.
Furthermore, back in the previous week, bipartisan legislation that would allow banks to work with marijuana businesses which are legal under state law was approved by the House Financial Services Committee.
