A group of Republican lawmakers has introduced a cannabis decriminalization bill that is expected to act as a compromise between broad, Democrat-led reform and more modest legislation from the GOP. The bill would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level, levy a tax on cannabis sales, and include social equity provisions, essentially giving both parties what they wanted from a cannabis bill.
Although there are a couple of compromises for both sides, the Republican-led version has a great chance of gaining bipartisan support and advancing past Congress, a feat that has so far eluded the Left. Dubbed the States Reform Act, the bill was sponsored by Republican Representative Nancy Mace and cosponsored by Reps. Brian Mast, Tom McClintock, Peter Meier and Don Yang.
The States Reform Act will integrate already existing state cannabis laws to ensure medical cannabis patients and cannabis businesses can continue operating as usual. Furthermore, the federal government will allow states to determine how to deal with cannabis, giving them leeway to pass cannabis laws of their choice. Coincidentally, all these provisions align with President Joseph Biden’s views on cannabis, decriminalizing the substance, allowing medical use and allowing states to craft their own cannabis policies.
Under Mace’s bill, the federal government would treat cannabis much like alcohol, as well as removing it from the Controlled Substances Act. The Alcohol, Tobacco and Cannabis Tax and Trade Bureau would be tasked with regulating interstate and international cannabis trade while the Food and Drug Administration would have limited regulatory authority over recreational cannabis. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, Firearms and Explosives would have enforcement authority and raw cannabis plants would be treated as an agricultural commodity and regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”).
The States Reform Act will levy a 3% federal tax on the sale of cannabis products, with the funds going to the Law Enforcement Retraining and Successful Second Chances Fund and being distributed to veterans’ mental health programs, state-funded opioid addiction programs and youth drug-use prevention programs. The taxes will also be distributed to the Edward Bryne Memorial Justice Assistant Grant (“JAG”), programs under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, a newly formed Successful Second Chances Program under the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and the Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program.
Mace says she is receiving significant feedback from both Democrats and Republicans and her main goal is to gain as much Republican support for the bill as possible. Although the Democrats are in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, they hold a slim majority and likely won’t be enough to advance cannabis reform on their own. Gaining the support of GOP lawmakers is probably the only way cannabis reform will be able to advance Congress and head to the president’s desk.
If this bill is passed and enacted, the environment in which companies such as Simply Sonoma Inc. operate would be greatly improved, at least from a regulatory angle.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Simply Sonoma Inc. are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/Sonoma
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