Federal Policy

A key congressional committee approved the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act today in a historic vote, setting the legislation up for consideration on the full House floor.

In a landmark occasion for cannabis reform, federal lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee are expected to vote tomorrow on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act tomorrow; the bill aims to federally legalize adult-use cannabis.

Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg each said this week they would support medical cannabis access for veterans if they win the presidency.

The cannabis industry lobby has reached a new high of $3.77 million in Capitol Hill spending this year, far surpassing the $2.76 million spent in 2018.

Gallup polling data suggests that 66 percent of American voters continue to support the nationwide legalization of cannabis; when Gallup first asked the question in 1969, just 12 percent of voters supported such reforms.

Recent cannabis reforms legalizing possession and home cultivation in the Australia Capital Territory will have “no effect” because it does not address differences in federal law, says Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter.

Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has called on the federal government to eliminate the “hoops” making cannabis research so difficult.

A coalition of dietary supplement trade associations has called on Congress to pass consumer protection legislation for dietary supplement products containing CBD.

The National Industrial Hemp Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation are teaming up to lobby the EPA into approving 10 submitted pesticide applications for hemp production.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed that cannabis industry workers have the same rights under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act as workers in traditional (and federally legal) industries.

The House of Representatives passed the SAFE Banking Act this afternoon in a historic and bipartisan landslide of support for giving state-legal cannabis companies access to banking services.

The SAFE Banking Act, which would normalize banking for the cannabis industry, is expected to receive a House vote next week.

A cadre of cannabis legalization advocates has called on House Democrats to delay a vote on the SAFE Banking Act in favor of pursuing more broad and “holistic” cannabis reforms, first.

Democratic leaders in the House intend for a full floor vote on the SAFE Banking Act by the end of September; lawmakers in the Senate, meanwhile, could likewise consider the bill — or their own version of the bill — by the year’s end.

A recent projection by Prohibition Partners suggests that North America’s legal cannabis industry may be worth an annual $47.3 billion by 2024.

Federal health officials are launching a public awareness campaign about the dangers of cannabis use; the effort is funded by President Trump, who reportedly donated his full second-quarter salary of $100,000 to the effort.

Hemp farmers can file for federal crop insurance under a new directive from the United States Department of Agriculture.

The DEA has announced an expansion of medical cannabis research options and a change in policy: hemp cultivators no longer need to register with the agency in light of the crop’s federal legalization.

Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute is suing the DEA over hurdles to cannabis research — specifically, that government-sourced cannabis is nothing like the products being used en masse throughout legal states.

With hemp legalization having spurred many prosecutors to turn away from cannabis cases, the U.S. Attorney for Florida’s Northern District says he will take over the prosecution of cannabis-related cases.

The National Credit Union Administration says that credit unions are free to serve hemp businesses now that the crop has been federally legalized.

During a campaign rally last week, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said that he would issue a mass pardon for federal nonviolent cannabis offenses if he is elected president.

The American Bar Association has called on the federal government to allow state-approved cannabis programs to operate without worrying about federal interference.