Days before Congressman Ed Perlmutter was scheduled to speak at a cannabis management conference in Denver this week, he had a defining moment in Washington, D.C. His bill that would allow banking institutions to serve legal cannabis companies became not only the first pot-related proposal to be considered by the full House of Representatives in over fifty years, it actually passed.
Browsing: Legislation
Colorado’s tourism industry has had a complicated relationship with cannabis since the state legalized the plant in late 2012. National hospitality businesses remain scared to touch a federally prohibited substance, while a state law banning public pot consumption has kept the majority of out-of-state dispensary shoppers without somewhere to legally light up.
But that tide may finally be turning.
The United States House of Representatives just approved a bill that would allow banks and financial institutions to serve marijuana businesses in states where it is legal without risking federal prosecution, marking a landmark step towards marijuana reform.
New marijuana business licenses reserved for low-income demographics are set to launch in Colorado in 2020, but questions remain about who should receive these licenses and how they should be regulated.
The push for federal cannabis banking legalization took another baby step on July 23 when the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs heard a bill that would allow financial institutions to serve companies connected with cannabis, which is still federally illegal.
Over 100 cannabis businesses and organizations just sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling for federal legalization of the plant, but their request didn’t stop there. The letter also urged federal funding be used to diversify the cannabis industry, as well as administer retroactive justice for old pot convictions and help communities impacted the most by the war on drugs.
On July 15, 2015, the Colorado Board of Health rejected a petition to add post-traumatic stress disorder as a medical marijuana condition, to the vocal dismay of a packed room of veterans and medical marijuana patients. Fast forward four years, and not only is PTSD now an approved medical condition, but the board is preparing to usher in one of the most expansive sets of MMJ rules that Colorado has seen in over a decade.
Colorado’s billion-dollar marijuana industry is about to welcome some deeper pockets into the game, but first it needs to create rules to play by.
The United States House of Representatives has pushed for more marijuana reform in 2019 than in any prior year, and just approved a bipartisan measure that protects all state pot programs from federal interference.
If America’s legal cannabis movement is going to be successful, it needs support from both of the major political parties and from people like Dan Anglin, a former U.S. Marine turned Republican lobbyist turned edibles entrepreneur. A veteran of Desert Storm as well as the early days of cannabis legalization in Colorado, Anglin has seen — and helped usher in — significant changes to laws and regulations surrounding cannabis edibles, while also starting a national brand of his own.