Public Comment Deadline on New Cannabis Draft Looms

by MICHAEL ORTON

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has sponsored a bill to decriminalize, regulate and tax the use of cannabis and cannabis products nationwide. What may bear repeating is that the public comment period on this discussion draft will close on September 1. “It’s not just an idea whose time has come; it’s long overdue,” Senator Schumer said at a press event in Washington. “We have all seen the agony of a young person arrested with a small amount of marijuana in his or her pocket. And because of the historical over-criminalization of marijuana, they have a very severe criminal record they have to live with their whole lives.” Removing cannabis from “Schedule 1” substance control is critical to legitimizing a nascent industry already established in thirty-seven states (including Utah) and the District of Columbia. All have legalized marijuana for medical use, where nationwide polling indicates public approval by a 70% majority. The Senator vowed to use his clout as majority leader to prioritize the matter in the senate.

CURRENT ACTION

Senate opposition to Schumer’s bill is likely to manifest by Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who had expressed concerns. “This new [Schumer] bill puts the cart before the horse,” he said. Grassley is the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “It’s important that we have robust research and fully understand the good and the bad of marijuana use, especially in young people and over the long term.”

Relative to Grassley’s concerns and different than the Schumer bill, within the “minibus” appropriations bill (which will be taken up in early September). The progressive House Democrats have included provisions that would strike a longstanding rider, first enacted in 1996, that prohibits the use of federal funds for “any activity that promotes the legalization of any drug or other substance in Schedule1.” Many believe that research into emergent, plant-based medicines would be covered, which is presently contested during budget negotiations. Without those protections, viable research in many accredited colleges and universities could halt, even with those which currently are funded. Sponsors clarified that the appropriations amendment intends to allow “United States researchers to study and examine the potential impacts of several Schedule 1 drugs, including MDMA, psilocybin, and ibogaine, that have been shown to be effective in treating critical diseases.”

IMPLICATIONS

Schumer’s “Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act” is currently in draft form, co-sponsored by Sen Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Sen Ron Wyland (D-Oregon). The bill would remove cannabis from its present Schedule 1 category status of the decades-old Controlled Substances Act. Additionally, social equity provisions expunging criminal records and paving the way for banking access are critical components of this legislation that Leader Schumer and his democratic colleagues propose. 

Schumer and his co-sponsors have included revenue provisions so that the federal government can exact “excise taxes” at the national level in addition to those in place by the states. This tax is significant on an emerging industry that recorded $20 Billion in sales last year. 

PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE

Before proposed legislation goes to committee deliberation, a public comment period is provided to allow input from all constituents who desire to put their views on the record. On the Schumer bill, this period ends September 1. You may send your comments directly to the sponsors and the Senators in your state. They are explicitly soliciting comment on the following: 

• Metrics on the potency of cannabis products, the overlap of definitions for hemp and marijuana, regulations for synthetic THC, regulatory responsibilities for various federal agencies, and FDA funding.

• Coordinating federal and state law enforcement responsibilities for cannabis, state “primacy regarding cannabis regulation,” and interstate commerce.

• Balancing efforts to reduce barriers to entry to the marijuana industry while mitigating the influence of illicit cannabis operators.

• Determining whether cannabis products should go through a premarket review before being marketed.

• Plans for international treaty obligations with respect to cannabis and its derivatives.