The Cannabis Administration Opportunity Act has been authored by Senator Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Ron Wyden. The bill in its current form has been in process for more than a year. Spearheaded by Chuck Schumer, similar bills had been put forth to the Senate, but had been shut down. Because of this, Mr. Schumer has been soliciting feedback and other advice to help the bill pass this time around..
This is the latest version of a bill to address the inequity in the world of cannabis banking and legalization. Several bills have been presented to address these issues in the past few years. With revisions addressing the Fair Banking Act in regards to cannabis businesses, removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, and decriminalization aimed at redirecting money from the ‘The War on Drugs’ towards communities and individuals affected by said war.
In addition, it would allow states to regulate per their discretion through licensing and taxation, removes the control of cannabis from the DEA to the FDA, creates market competition rules to protect independant and smaller businesses and requires the department of transportation to establish a standard for impaired driving while on cannabis.
Perhaps the most significant parts of the bill are the expungement of cannabis related records on the federal level and allowing cannabis businesses to utilize the security of the banking system so they won’t have to deal exclusively in cash.
Cannabis related businesses have been reduced to doing business with cash only resulting in large amounts of cash being on hand in their prospective stores. This has spurred break ins and robberies as the criminals are aware there are large quantities of cash on hand.
Of course the war on drugs has imprisoned many people for the long term for a substance that is being deemed inaccurately scheduled as a schedule 1 drug. The details of expungement for these individuals in many, but legal aid and assistance re-entering the free world are part of the bill.
These would seem to be the most relevant topics to most readers as the bill consists of 296 pages of which much more is involved. Follow our blog to keep track of further updates.