“In short, the sky is not falling in Colorado.”
That is how Republican Sen. Cory Gardner summed up his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday morning, where he was advocating legislative action to give legal marijuana businesses access to banks and protection for banks from being viewed as money launderers under federal law for handling their money.
The STATES Act (or the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act, yikes) amends the current Controlled Substances Act to prohibit federal interference in states that have their own legal weed laws on the books. Right now, 10 states plus Washington, D.C. have chosen to legalize recreational weed, while 33 more states allow medical marijuana use. That's a staggering majority of states with green laws and green regulations in place. Its sponsors hope to get it through Congress before the next election—and the sooner, the better.
An unlikely coalition of lawmakers is plotting how to revise the nation’s marijuana laws during the 116th Congress — a mission that’s become much more viable in recent years as public support for legalizing cannabis shoots up and members introduce bills in higher numbers than ever before.
Marijuana reform in Congress has gained substantial momentum in 2018 and June was no exception.
Beginning with the introduction of the bipartisan STATES Act from Senators Warren and Gardner, to the Joyce/Leahy medical marijuana amendment (formerly known as Rohrabacher-Blumenauer) passing at the committee level through non-controversial voice votes, it appears that many in Congress are finally joining their constituents in supporting marijuana reform.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Saturday quickly endorsed legislation that would stop the federal government from enforcing anti-marijuana laws in states that have legalized the drug.
Murphy, who is pushing to legalize cannabis in New Jersey for recreational use, was one of 12 governors signing a letter to congressional leaders of both parties in support of the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday that he missed the invite to recent meetings between President Donald Trump and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) concerning marijuana legislation.
In an interview with Colorado Public Radio, the top cop at the Justice Department was asked whether he was involved in conversations between Trump and Gardner, during which the president reportedly voiced support for legislative efforts to protect states that have legalized from federal interference.
Gardner and Warren’s Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act is a bi-partisan bill. Warren says the proposal is generating enthusiasm across the political spectrum, giving it better odds in the Senate than usual.
Sen. Gardner has even managed to get a statement of support from President Trump. On Morning Joe, Gardner said Trump agreed there was no going back on the issue of legal cannabis. The Washington Post reported that Trump would back legislation like the STATES Act.
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives introduced a historic bill this morning that could change the cannabis legalization landscape across the United States.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday that would allow states to regulate marijuana without federal interference.
Warren and Gardner, who both represent states with legal recreational pot, introduced the legislation, known as Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, as a response to the Trump administration's hard-line stance against the drug.
On Thursday morning at 10:45 AM ET, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) will hold a press conference to discuss a far-reaching bill they plan to file to end the federal war on marijuana.
The move comes after Gardner cut a deal with President Trump to support such legislation in exchange for the senator ending a blockade on Justice Department nominees he began in protest of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision earlier this year to rescind Obama-era guidance generally protecting state cannabis laws.