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Advancing Marijuana Law Reform Legislation

Advancing marijuana law reform legislation with Aaron Smith. Aaron is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA). Before the organization’s launch, he was a public advocate for cannabis policy reform. Initially, Smith worked with Safe Access Now, a group of medical cannabis advocates based in California. He then went on to become the California State Policy Director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). In addition to his work with the NCIA, Smith has written a number of opinion articles that have been featured in newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

Learn more about NCIA’s 9th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days on May 21-23, 2019.

 

 

Transcription:

Get informed, get inspired, and get connected.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice on Cannabis Radio, I’m your host Bethany Moore, and on the Communications Project Manager at the National cannabis industry association today, I am happy to be sitting with the executive director of NCIA, Aaron Smith, who is also the Co-founder, hello Aaron!

Hey, thanks for having me, it’s always great to be here with you, Bethany and all of our great listeners out there, absolutely, and we’re going on two and a half years of this podcast soon, which is pretty exciting speaking of time, and the passage of time, you founded NCIA nearly 10 years ago at this point, and a lot has happened to say the least. Let’s just briefly talk about what things were like 10 years ago, versus now in 2019.

Oh, wow, well, there’s like you said, a whole lot has happened around the development of the legal cannabis industry and the policies affecting our industry, of course, in 2010, when we founded “NCIA there was no adult use cannabis laws on the books anywhere in the country in the hat and there weren’t for another two years in Colorado, in Washington, came on board and we had I think maybe one piece of legislation that had been introduced in Congress, maybe to dealing with marijuana reform issues with a very small handful of liberal Democrat and Libertarian Republican co-sponsors. And now, I honestly couldn’t even tell you exactly how many pending at this very moment, but there have been dozens of pieces of legislation, pending and we have about a third of the house co-sponsoring some of the positive legislation and more and more opinion leaders and thought leaders around this issue coming forward and calling for not just incremental change, but full adult use and tax and regulate cannabis, like alcohol across the country.

Yeah, absolutely wow what a wild right? It’s been mostly positive from here. When you look at the future, how would you describe your vision for the future of the cannabis industry at this point? And has that changed from what your predictions or view was 10 years ago, when you started NCIA?

Ultimately, we wanna see a future where adults are never in danger of being put behind bars, for using a substance safer than alcohol, and we want that substance to be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol in a way that is accessible to small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country not consolidated into larger corporate cannabis, so to speak, although those businesses should have an opportunity to grow and become larger employers, but we know vision really hasn’t changed, but we have got to where we are now, through incremental progress, seeing the new legislation on incremental issues like Banking Reform and to a… Which I think we’ll talk about those a little later? Building momentum behind these incremental reforms toward that day when we can actually pass comprehensive legislation. And there’s multiple versions of comprehensive marijuana legalization bills out there.

I think the vision remains the same. I’m continually pleased with the way that the progress has been going steadily and almost exponentially at this point. We have one of uncertainty in this White House, in the department of justice, but it’s been certainly just seeing the new DOJ had the nutrient who’s, I think, as we speak right now, testifying on the molar investigation before the Senate, but he happens to Attorney General bar happens to have a very, very different opinion of Cannabis than his predecessor or even his administration.

Yeah, well, yeah, I think it goes to show that regulation works, which is one of our hashtags and it’s not going to happen overnight. As you said, These are incremental changes toward a goal.

I totally agree.

So here we are, 2019 “NCIA as an organization has grown as well, we have 25 staff members, and counting, and I think I was employee number five and we have nearly 2 000-member businesses nationwide at this stage and we’re gonna talk more about lobby days in a bit but generally speaking, how would you describe NCIS role in the cannabis industry today and some of the important things we’re working on, what you’ve already mentioned.

So, “NCIA as first of foremost represents the industry, broadly meaning that we represent the political interest and economic and social interests, of cannabis businesses of all sizes across the country, different verticals within the industry and we are working toward that day when we have more of a free market approach, yet regulated approach to cannabis and “NCIA has developed over the last couple of years beyond just the work that we’re doing in Washington DC, which is so very important and why we found at the organization in the first place, we’ve expanded that work year after year after year expanding our DC office and our presence on the hill, but we also added so many different member benefits for members networking opportunities, exclusive access to information, the ability to things like this podcast and abilities for our members to get their name out there into the industry and their ideas and thoughts out there. And we’re going to continue to see more member benefits rolling out in the year ahead and into next year as we prepare for really the post-Prohibition-era NCIA.

Yeah, looking forward to it. And in the meantime, our members are doing a really great job of getting involved.

We’ve been… What we’ve been in hosting Community committees.

Sorry, I… We’ve had committees, member-driven committees on various topics throughout the organization, and industry and those members in those committees are they’re writing really helpful white papers to give advice to our members on everything from marketing advice, finance advice, insurance advice. So we’re really becoming more sophisticated, and getting smarter and we’re doing it together, which is really great. And we also have the policy council that’s also producing some really great white papers that are a bit more higher-level policy recommendations, best practices.

So there’s a lot going on here, definitely in addition to all the other benefits that we’ve been packing on to our membership to provide value for them, absolutely. So, the most exciting event of the year, and arguably, I think one of the most valuable events, that we host is our annual lobby days and it’s right around the corner, it’s our ninth consecutive year in a row, heading to Washington DC with “NCIA members. And telling our stories to members of Congress, how are you feeling about things this year?

This is always one of my favorite events, and favorite activities of the year in terms of being able to help move the dial in DC, but also in a way to bring our members together behind that work and connect with one another.

And as you think you said at the top of this, that the regulation works and our message, we take to DC, is being able to show how regulating marijuana, is working in the states, whether it be medical Canada and demonstrating the fact that not only is this good public policy, but introducing members of Congress and their staff to the real people, the human beings that are behind this wonderful industry of ours. And this year is going to be, I think, the most impactful yet and maybe have accused of saying that year over year, but it’s actually, true it’s… We just had the house turnover from the Republican majority to a Democratic majority other 89 new members of Congress on the House, Representative side and nine new senators that are taking up the cannabis issue from a federal perspective for the first time, this is an opportunity for us to be able to take those meetings with these new members that are getting in an e-acclimated in DC and with the momentum that’s on our backs with so much happening at both the state level and the federal level.

We are seeing a reception in these offices in DC more than we ever have before. I think the last I checked with our wonderful government relation staff we had over 150 meetings already scheduled as of now, and we still have a few weeks to go before we get to lobby days. And I think that the more that we can continue to demonstrate that regulation works in terms of creating jobs and revitalizing the economies but also, in terms of public safety, the more data is on our side, the close that we’re going to get to finally reaching the point where we go over the tipping point, and we have federal law that at a minimum, defers to states and allow states to enact their own policies, and ultimately when we really want is federal law of the taxes and regulates cannabis coast to coast.

Yeah, that’d be ideal, yeah.

We already have hundreds of NCIA members who have registered and we’re looking forward to seeing that number double, and I believe we were able to hit every congressional office, in one way, shape or form last year, and possibly the year before as well, because of the numbers that we have of NCA members showing up. So let’s keep up that momentum. We’re going to take a quick commercial break, and then we’ll be right back to that. More with Aaron Smith NCIS executive director, a statue in “cia’s cannabis industry. Boys will return once we give a voice to our sponsors in 2018, the national cannabis industry association SAS 60% increase in congressional co-sponsorship of their priority legislation, the federal legalization of hemp as well as the election of a new Congress expected to be more cannabis-friendly.

 

Alright, we are back on NCIA’s Cannabis industry voice on cannabis radio, I’m your host Bethany and we’re chatting with NCIA’S, Executive Director Aaron Smith. Obviously, lobby days is right around the corner here, May 21st, 22nd, and 23rd super excited to be heading to DC soon. I hope those of you that have registered, a book your flights and got your hotel, all squared away or your Airbnb whatever works for you we’re looking forward to seeing you on a aranei.

Let’s go over some of the priority legislation. The “NCIA members are gonna be educating members of Congress on starting let’s start with banking since there has been so much progress already just this year.

Yeah, this is the safe Banking Act as stand for the secure and fair enforcement Banking Act which is introduced just a couple of months ago, re-introduced by Congressman Ed Perlmutter and Denny heck on the House, and Senator Jeff Merkley. Over in the Senate has the, I think, has the best chance of actually being enacted into law, this Congress, it’s received two hearings already on the House side with getting out of the house financial services committee, just a few weeks ago with a 45 to 15 vote including 11 Republicans, I think, yeah, that’s why the co-sponsor stands at 169 cosponsors as up today, and it seems like every day more and more signing on. And that’s because, Mancini perspective at NCI started, this was an issue that hardly anybody even knew about and it’s really evolved into an issue, at least on the hill. We knew about it in the industry, but not on Capitol Hill, but now it’s one of the issues that there’s almost in say, almost a consensus on the House side, that this is a priority and we have some more challenges on the Senate side, and that’s another reason to come out to DC to talk about if you’re an employee in the industry or a business owner, I’m sure you have some stories about how the outdated banking regulations as they relate to cannabis affects your business, your safety even unfortunately. And we need those stories told in the halls of Congress and that’s what lobby days is all about, especially over in the Senate. Senator cros, the site, I’m sorry he’s the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which is ultimately has jurisdiction over the Senate, version of this bill, he represents Ido, which is one of the three states left that doesn’t have any kind of marijuana.

This is not a priority for him because it’s not something that he’s dealing with in this state, but we need to make sure that we’re there to really educate leadership like that as well as the rank and file on both sides, how to why this is important and how to move this forward.

Yeah, yeah, let’s go meet him and shake his hand and chat with him and tell him what’s going on. And on the subject of telling our stories, I do wanna mention during one of the hearings, NCIA asked our members to submit testimony and I shout out to all the members that spoke up and submitted their testimony about how banking has impacted their business. We were able to submit I wanna say almost 100.

Yeah, yeah that’s amazing, I’m glad we were able to do that at really underscored our argument for safe banking.

So some other issues that we focus on include a policy, social equity veterans, medical access. Let’s talk more about some of these other legislation focuses, especially our new Hemp and CBD Coalition.

Yeah, I got you brought that up. The farm bill last year that was enacted in the law, for the first time, included provisions that would effectively legalize industrial hemp, and then also created a path forward for the regulation of hemp drive CBD in states where that’s legal and tasked the FDA to come up with the rules and the regulations around surrounding the manufacture and distribution of CBD products which if you watch the cannabis industry at all, it’s hard not to notice that this is an area of the great growth within the industry, but has been completely unregulated and actually… Actually, under a prohibition scheme for this whole time, so we’re really excited to have leverage and “cia’s position as the largest cannabis industry trade association in the country to pull together a coalition of over 70 advisory members, who represent cannabis or CBD, have businesses, entrepreneurs as well as policy experts medical experts to advise “NCIA in the rule-making process and inform ultimately FDA through testimony that they’re upcoming hearing on May 31st, in Washington, DC, on sensible regulations, around the manufacturer of CD and hemp products that balance public safety, public health as well as the needs of our business members to be able to thrive.

And that’s… That’s a really telling that we’ve pivoted into regulatory affairs and rule making, which is something that the cannabis industry is really used to dealing with… At the state level, but at the federal level, we’ve just been up against prohibition and this is the first time that we’re really working with an executive agency on the regulation of a cannabis product and I know it’s not THC, but it’s a cannabis product and I think that this will set the stage for down the road when, when we’re working on other cannabis products. And you mentioned Social Equity, we also are rolling out a publication that outlines the social priorities for ensuring that social equity provisions are included in state and federal legislation around marijuana, so that those who have been most impacted by the war on drugs, and at the flaws of failed Marijuana prohibition people of color and other minority communities have a leg up on an opportunity to participate in this new industry that’s growing so quickly. And we’re actually going to be hosting a luncheon with our breakfast. I’m sorry, on May 23rd in Washington DC to roll that paper out, we already have some members of secession Black Caucus. We were gonna be speaking at that, and this is something that we’ve probably done in a relationship with the minority cannabis business association.

Nice, nice. Yeah, it sounds like we’re in a little bit more of a position to be proactive on some of these issues now instead of on the defense. So it’s probably a nice change of pace. What else is our big focus this year? Anything else?

Yeah, so the far as incremental changes, we mentioned… We talked about banking we’re also going to be sharing stories with members of Congress about 2-8, which is a crippling policy that from outdated federal tax policy that prevents businesses from taking the ordinary deductions and keeping the industry from being able to grow and we invest in communities and we’re also gonna be working on the big picture legislation like the marijuana Justice Act which is probably one of our preferred legislative vehicles out there that would tax and regulate cannabis, but also addresses some of the social equity issues and through prohibiting federal funds to go into states that have disproportionate incarceration rates for people of color, which sadly is I think all of them at this point as well as a pushing the States Act, which is more of a very basic bill that allow state to allows businesses within states that have some form of regulated marijuana to operate outside of the Controlled Substances Act and address as many. If not all of the more industry-related concerns that, again, this is really about putting a face on the industry, it’s one thing for us and our lobbyists in DC to work this every day on our members behalf but it’s so much more powerful to tell the story in a personal way that only those who are directly impacted by this can, and that’s what lobby days is all about.

Yeah, awesome, well, thank you for going through some of those key pieces of legislation that we’ll be focusing on this year and every year until they get resolved. We’re gonna take a quick commercial break, in a minute, but when we come back, we’re gonna dive into specifically what lobby days is all about what it’s gonna be like and just talk a little bit more about what’s going on in CIA. So stay tuned, we will be right back in “cia’s cannabis industry. Voice will return once we give a voice to our sponsors, the National cannabis industry association six annual cannabis business Summit, and Expo Returns to San Jose, California, McInerney Convention Center July 22nd through the 24th register today at Cannabis business Summit, dot com. And take part in the most influential award-winning cannabis conference, and trade show host of by the cannabis industries only national trade association, TIA is cannabis business Summit, an XO offers attendees. The days of engagement and interactive programs arrive early, so you could participate in our pre-conference workshops and off-site tours join hundreds upon hundreds of exhibitors and thousands upon thousands of attendees at NCIA’s 6th annual cannabis business Summit, the next monthJuly 22nd through the 24th and saying hose California register today at Cannabis Business Summit, dot com, the cannabis business Summit, dot com.

 

All right there, back we’re wrapping up our conversation with an NCIA’s executive director and co-founder and we’ve been chatting a bit about our key pieces of legislation that we focus on particularly this year at lobby days with hundreds of NCA members, again NCIS lobby days is made 21-22 and 23, in Washington DC this year. And reminder, friendly reminder “NCIA members must register in advance to attend a Aaron mentioned our GR team is already setting up meetings with hundreds of congressional offices in forming the teens that will go navigate them.

So please, if you haven’t registered get off the fence.

The websites, the cannabis industry, dot org, lobby days 2019 and there’s a lot going on if you’ve never been before. So let’s go ahead and talk about what those three days are gonna be like. We’re also launching a new VIP day, on the 21st, the first day, which is something we haven’t done before. So let’s start by talking about what the reason is for VIP Day and what that’s gonna be like.

Yeah, the VIP Lobby Day is an exclusive event for members of our pack leadership circle, which is a new program that we’ve launched at the beginning of this year for contributors to the “NCIA PAC of 1000 or more. One of the benefits they get is access to this VIP day among many others, throughout the year in our pack just to back up is our political action committee that “NCIA uses to contribute to candidates who support the cannabis industry running for Congress, and so it’s so important that we are able to support the financially support these campaigns in the system that we have. It takes a lot of money to get elected to Congress.

And we were really proud to have been able to raise a great deal and spend a great deal any over this last election cycle. helped elect 50 members of Congress who were champions on our issue. And the VIP day is sort of partly an opportunity for some of those members of Congress to me in a more intimate setting with the contributors to the NCIS political efforts.

It will include a series of meetings on Capitol Hill as well as a luncheon with some of the newly elected members of Congress that were supported by the pack as well as just some other surprises for our pack leadership circle folks and we definitely encourage anybody listening is a member of “NCIA or even if you’re not to get involved with “NCIA and call if you more information about the pack give us a call or send us an email info at the cannabis industry dot or cool yeah, thanks and surprises. Sounds pretty fun. So looking forward to seeing what VIP days, give a big… So of course there’s the actual lobbying itself, the going and sitting down and talking with the members of Congress and their staff and how that works. We group people into teams so between three and five people that are NCAA members, will be put into a team together and we send them off the various pre-scheduled meetings with these congressional offices. So are you gonna take meetings this year, Aaron? And are you excited about visiting any particular offices?

Well, first one… One is just also kinda back up and talk about the way that the lobby days, works because I know that sometimes, somebody if you’re buried in your business, you’re not really… You’re not a professional obvious we don’t expect you to be, but we make it really, really easy. And as Bethany as you said, we have teams that are led by seasoned lobby days veterans, so to speak, who have attended in the past and are used to navigating the hill.

We also have an app that all lobby these attendees will be able to download that’ll have your schedule and talking points and all the information you need, just right there at your fingertips.

We also have some online webinars leading up to lobby days that once you register, you’ll get information about with some training and tips and tricks on citizen lobbying and then a mandatory breakfast training in person in DC on the 22nd, really want… Do you sify this for you as much as possible and make it as easy as possible to participate in the system? For me, whether I take meetings I tend to go with the flow and jump into the ones that I feel in the moment I should be in ’cause I do like to kinda sit back and also just listen to what our members have to say. So, I’ll bounce around at some different teams and it’s great to hear, it’s great for us, not just me, but all of us on the staff to also hear directly from the members of a kind of what they’re facing back in their day-to-day business and really, ’cause it helps us amplify that message. The other 362, three days a year that we’re in DC, this doing this without having 300 of you in town, so… And of course, also really, really important that we get in front of these new members of Congress, there’s between the House and Senate there’s almost 100 new fresh faces in there, that are dealing with some of these issues for the first time. In many cases, many of them are are generally supportive but they still need to learn more about the issues and so, even meeting with those members of Congress who really support us is really, really valuable because we want them to be armed with as much information as possible.

Yeah, absolutely, I’m looking forward to seeing what those new members of Congress are like especially since some of them replaced, some members of Congress who were not friendly on our issues. So we really have a great opportunity here, I think.

So as we wrap up the show here I wanna encourage everyone to get more information about lobby days. There are blogs and videos from previous years. You can watch to really absorb what it’s like. Head to our website, the cannabis industry dot org, specifically, the cannabis industry, dot org. lobby days, 2019 for more information.

Alright, well, Aaron thanks so much for sitting down with me today, and really talking about this exciting event, lobby days that we do and I’m looking forward to being in DC right around the corner here.

That’s right now, thank you for having me be a great conversation and I look forward to senior and everybody in DC as well.

Awesome, alright thanks. everybody for tuning into NCIA’s Cannabis industry voice on until next time, the opinions expressed on this cannabis radio dot Con program are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff and management of cannabis. Radio dot com any re-broadcast or redistribution without proper docent of cannabis radio dot com is prohibited when it comes to their kids.