Tag: Cory Booker

Apple Secretly Joined Amazon In Advancing Commercial Cannabis Reform

Apple Secretly Joined Amazon In Advancing Commercial Cannabis Reform

Posted on by dylanramsey

Source: Forbes.com | Author: Robert Hoban | Feb 15, 2022

This past summer, a little recognized thing occurred — one of the largest and most respected companies in the world quietly changed its policies in favor of cannabis. That company was Apple. As a result, they joined the ranks of Amazon as a global corporation advocating for policy reform that would open a federally legal, commercial cannabis industry in the United States.

For years, large tech companies, including Facebook and Google, have refused to acknowledge the legality of industrial hemp, let alone the legality of medical or recreational marijuana. Finally, Apple bucked that trend. In June, the fine print of Apple’s “App Store Review Guidelines” release stated that apps handling sales and delivery of medical and recreational cannabis in legal jurisdictions are now allowed on the App Store. This was monumental.  

Unlike the big headlines we’ve seen recently from Amazon, Uber, the NFL, and other mainstream, institutional businesses, showing a positively changing attitude toward cannabis, Apple made no big-splash announcement that this had happened. Yet, this change came at a time of a shift in the cannabis paradigm for voters, policymakers, and the average American. 

As we’ve discussed previously, U.S. voters are shifting rapidly and dramatically in favor of cannabis legalization. The most recent Gallup poll showed that 68% of American voters support some form of legalization. There’s also tremendous momentum from the recent unveiling of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

The financial technology experts at ArtisIQ are ahead of the curve in identifying the imperative to collaborate with tech leaders like Apple to update policy to reflect the mainstream adoption of cannabis. Co-Founder and CMO of Artis, Adair Lion shares, “As a fintech company on the cutting-edge of development in both cannabis and retail, Apple’s Policy changes are a monumental shift in the way our society does mobile transactions.”

When political leaders and Fortune 100 companies begin modifying policies and behavior to accommodate something that has been seen as fringe, elicit, or otherwise illegal, the hearts and minds of American start to change. It’s safe to say the tide is turning. 

This is the kind of influence that sets the tone for mainstream behavior. Think back to the early days of Babe Ruth and baseball, where ball players were smoking cigarettes in the dugout and cigarette advertisements abounded. Or more recently, Elon Musk and Tesla’s support of cryptocurrency which influenced much wider adoption and made the price of Bitcoin soar. 

The fine print of Apple’s policy update states that apps involved in the sale of cannabis are exclusive to licensed legal entities and strictly require geo-fencing within the legal jurisdiction. This requires an enormous amount of technological and regulatory compliance and is precisely where a fintech software company like Artis could excel. Consumer behavior shows the need for embedded digital payment technology. There’s been modest growth in payment and technology solutions for the cannabis industry and ancillary service providers. This is in no small part due to federal illegality and the fragmented nature of the industry.   

Apple’s policy adjustments are just an example of the level of innovation and attention to detail that Artis is providing to the cannabis industry. What is it that propels some tech companies above the rest? It’s those that provide solutions for the world’s most complex problems. It’s plain to see that cannabis has presented enormous complexity to politicians, enterprise businesses, and just about every other imaginable cog in the machine of our modern world.  

The contributions of experienced professionals are unequivocally what is necessary to propel cannabis further into the mainstream. These are the building blocks, the intimate details, that ultimately bring to reality the hopes of grand legislation, like the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. Compliant and lawful participation in the cannabis ecosystem is paramount to widespread, mainstream adoption. As one who has had to navigate the grey areas of cannabis law for many years – and I’m as honest as a Denver man can be – I will always applaud the hard work to deliberately pave the way forward for this industry.

House Officially Passes Defense Bill With Marijuana Banking Protections, But Key Senators May Block Path Ahead

House Officially Passes Defense Bill With Marijuana Banking Protections, But Key Senators May Block Path Ahead

Posted on by dylanramsey

Source: Marijuana Moment.net | Author: Kyle Jaeger | Sept 23, 2021

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a large-scale defense spending bill that includes an amendment to shield banks that works with state-legal marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators. Now advocates and industry stakeholders are left wondering: what’s the fate of the reform in the Senate? And can it make it to the president’s desk?

New comments from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)—who’s helping lead the charge to advance comprehensive marijuana legalization and who has been severely critical of efforts to enact banking reform first—signal that the path to pass the incremental policy change through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) could be in jeopardy in the Senate. Other key senators have also expressed skepticism about the reform’s prospects through this process.

For supporters, things may have been more simple if the Senate had moved to include cannabis banking reform in its own version, but the text of NDAA released by Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday does not contain that language. That means the matter will need to be settled in a bicameral conference committee after the full Senate formally passes its bill. At that point, negotiators from both chambers will work to resolve differences between their separate proposals.

Already, there’s pushback from key senators to including the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the NDAA that’s ultimately sent to President Joe Biden. That’s not especially surprising considering that leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), has insisted on passing comprehensive justice-focused marijuana legalization first rather than advance an incremental reform on banking. But recent statements do raise questions about the prospects of enacting the reform through the defense bill.

It’s not that the SAFE Banking Act is partisan or especially controversial on its face; it’s a matter of legislative priorities for certain senators and a question of germaneness in NDAA. As of Tuesday, when the reform amendment was officially attached to the House version of the bill, it has now passed five times in the chamber, usually along largely bipartisan lines.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), chief sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act, spoke with Marijuana Moment about the process moving forward in a phone interview on Wednesday. He was optimistic about the measure’s prospects with NDAA as the vehicle, though he conceded that he hadn’t spoken with Schumer or other key senators who are actively finalizing legalization legislation that they hope to see move first.

“I think the fifth time is the charm,” he said. “I mean, obviously, we still have to do some work to make sure that it remains part of the NDAA as the House and the Senate go to conference. So we still have work to do with the Senate to make sure that it remains part of it. But I think that it will.”

“I mean, the fact that it deals with cartels and national security, on top of the need for the public safety piece of this thing, I think that we’ll be able to convince the conference committee and the conferees generally to keep it in,” he said. “But we still have work to do.”

Florida ag commissioner backs marijuana legalization to clear way for hemp

Florida ag commissioner backs marijuana legalization to clear way for hemp

Posted on by dylanramsey

Source: HempToday.net | Author: Hemp Today | Sept 2, 2021

A lack of clarity in federal cannabis laws is suppressing growth of the legal hemp industry, according to Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who this week wrote a letter to U.S. Senate leaders backing cannabis reform legislation that would end the prohibition on marijuana.

In the letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), Senator Ron Wyden (OR), and Senator Cory Booker (NJ), the bill’s sponsors, Fried also emphasized the need for the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to classify hemp as a food ingredient.

Fried said the current arbitrary line defining when a product is deemed hemp and legal versus marijuana and illegal often means hemp farmers have problems with access to capital, federal research funding, insurance protections, disaster relief, federal trade promotion programs, and employment protections.

Conflicts

“While the burgeoning growth of the hemp industry is promising, it has also revealed the need for federal action to resolve the conflicts arising from the federal prohibition of marijuana,” Fried wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 31.

Fried’s recommendations address the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, legislation proposed by the three senators which would end the federal marijuana ban while allowing states to determine their own cannabis laws.

“If left unresolved, these unnecessary hurdles could suppress the growth of the hemp industry that is projected to increase at 32 percent annually through 2027 as our nation moves toward more environmental and health-conscious products,” the commissioner wrote.

Federal inaction also means state-legal marijuana industries are stifled, Fried warned.

Focus on food

FDA classification of hemp as a food ingredient would also qualify its derivatives for inclusion in supplements, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDACS). If hemp, on the other hand, is first recognized as a supplement, it may not then cross over and be used as a food ingredient (despite the fact that supplement manufacturing standards are more stringent than those for making food).

Florida’s current legal and regulatory structures are “built on the understanding that hemp is a food additive,” FDACS noted in analysis Fried included with her letter to the senators.

Progress, challenges

Florida has approved more than 800 hemp cultivation permits for farmers in 65 of the state’s 67 counties since FDACS began accepting applications to grow industrial hemp early in 2020. Roughly 22,000 of 30,000 acres approved for planting were farmed last year, according to FDACS figures, representing at least a theoretical economic impact of roughly $300 million, with $136 million in revenue and more than 8,000 jobs created.

But researchers studying hemp’s potential in Florida say they haven’t yet found many hemp varieties viable in the state’s tropical and subtropical climates – a challenge faced by agronomy experts from Latin America to Africa to Southeast Asia, where countries are rushing to roll out hemp initiatives. Regions at tropical latitudes have struggled to find varieties that will flourish and still meet rules governing maximum amounts of THC.

Costs of prohibition

Florida’s hemp plan has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the state opted to remain under rules in the 2014 Farm Bill hemp pilot program for one more year after the USDA offered that option at the end of 2020. Hemp states without federally approved plans got the one-year extension to give regulators more time to harmonize local and federal laws.

Fried said marijuana legalization would also help resolve conflicts between federal and state laws governing medical and adult-use cannabis. The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would expunge federal non-violent marijuana crimes, and reinvest federal cannabis tax revenue into communities historically afflicted by the “War on Drugs.”

“Continued marijuana criminalization demands billions in social, economic, and criminal justice costs, while forgoing billions in potential tax revenue,” Fried wrote in her letter to the Senators.