Photo credit: Igor Sevanovic
To anyone not paying close attention, a scandal currently rattling the marijuana community could seem odd. Sen. Cory Booker, one of the greatest allies of cannabis reform in Congress, announced that he will “lay himself down” to block the SAFE Banking Act, a bill which would allow cannabis businesses to legally access banking and financial services—a key right that state-legal pot businesses have been begging lawmakers to pass. The reality is that Sen. Booker is making a gamble: By blocking incremental reform, he wants to force Congress to accept much wider reform and finally federally legalize cannabis.
The bill that Booker is defending by putting his reputation on the line is the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. This Opportunity Act was penned by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Booker himself. The bill’s main features are to entirely remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances, expunge prior convictions, remove all marijuana-related penalties on the federal level and allow states to have authority over their own marijuana laws.
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act aims to create a federal tax on state-legal marijuana products, reinvesting the money obtained this way into communities most harmed by the War on Drugs, especially communities of color. It would take authority over cannabis away from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and give it to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Act would promote social equity through a newly created Cannabis Justice Office operating under the Justice Department, it would provide funding through federal and local agencies to help small cannabis businesses and support entrepreneurship from individuals who were negatively impacted by the War on Drugs. The planned 25% federal tax on psychoactive cannabis products could be reduced in half for small cannabis businesses.
Monumental Steps
“This is monumental because at long last we are taking steps in the Senate to right the wrongs of the failed war on drugs,” Schumer announced as he unveiled the draft bill.
“The days of federal prohibition are numbered,” said NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri. “These actions by Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senators Booker and Wyden reflect the fact that the supermajority of Americans are demanding that Congress take action to end the cruel and senseless policy of federal prohibition. It is time for legislators to comport federal law with the laws of the growing number of states that have legalized the plant, and it is time for lawmakers to facilitate a federal structure that allows for cannabis commerce so that responsible consumers can obtain high-quality, low-cost cannabis grown right here in America without fear of arrest and incarceration.”
If this act comes to pass, it would become legal for any American 21 and older to purchase up to 10 ounces of cannabis at a time, and it would take five years to fully implement the structural changes required to create, tax and regulate a national cannabis market. However, the bill is not in its final form yet, and it could evolve based on public comments. After the draft bill was released, and before it is introduced to Congress, its Senate sponsors are asking the public for feedback to fine-tune the proposals.
This is the most extensive marijuana legalization bill that Congress might vote on, if it passes through Congressional committees—which seems likely, given the immense weight of the politicians backing it up. Last year, the House of Representatives made history by passing the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which unfortunately died in the Republican-controlled Senate while it was under the control of then-Majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell. The Senate, which represented the last roadblock to marijuana legalization, has shifted in favor of Democrats, although Republicans still hold 50% of the seats. A reason for optimism could be the fact that the author of the bill, Sen. Schumer himself, replaced Mitch McConnell at the helm.
“I will use my clout as Majority Leader to make this [legislation] a priority in the Senate. It makes eminent sense to legalize marijuana,” Schumer announced point blank.
This is the best chance that marijuana has to be fully legalized since Nixon chose to wage war on its own nation. Unfortunately, this chance relies on the fact that current marijuana laws are nonsensical and hurt prospects for essentially everyone—and Republicans are trying to pass piecemeal legislation to make the status quo livable for enough people to undermine the support otherwise granted to the full legalization of cannabis. The SAFE Banking Act, which would do nothing but open the doors of financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, would be a good thing for these entrepreneurs—but it would make it that much harder to sell the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, as it would plug some holes without addressing the fact that the ship is sinking.
“The banking bill would deal with a small part of [the issue] but not what needs to be done. We need a good, comprehensive bill,” Schumer explained as he unveiled his proposal. Booker doubled down: Only doing a banking bill, he said, means to “just do it so some people can get rich and not do something about the people who are languishing with criminal convictions—to not do something on restorative justice, not to make sure that the business opportunities that are created are given a fair playing field, where right now in many states, someone who has a criminal conviction for selling marijuana can’t get a license.”
And so, he promised that he will vote against his own party and his own ideological allies, if needed, to make sure the marijuana market is not opened to millionaires and billionaires who could otherwise take it over before a comprehensive bill levels the playing field for small businesses and low-resources individuals.
This is an uncomfortable situation, where allies fight each other because some want to urgently pass protection for existing businesses, while others refuse a partial solution that might undermine future prospects for the entire industry. The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act still needs to be finalized after a public comments period; then, it will need to gather every Democratic voice in the Senate; then, it will need to fight against the White House, which has already announced that President Joe Biden opposes the bill. Then, and only then, can America reap the rewards of the high-risk, high-reward gambit that these Democratic senators have chosen for the future of marijuana.
