“It’s time for federal laws that respect the states who have decided a legal, regulated approach is smarter and safer than the failure of marijuana prohibition.”

Washington, DC – U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jared Polis (D-CO) today launched a legislative effort to fundamentally reform the way the federal government treats legal marijuana businesses and the patients and customers who rely on them. Taken together, the two pieces of legislation introduced today would allow states that have chosen a legal, regulated approach to marijuana to move forward without federal interference and allow banking access and fair taxation to state-compliant cannabis businesses.

“More than half of Americans now live in states where access to medical or adult-use marijuana is legal at the state level. It’s time for federal laws that respect the states who have decided a legal, regulated approach is smarter and safer than the failure of marijuana prohibition,” said National Cannabis Industry Association executive director Aaron Smith.

“The leadership of Rep. Blumenauer and Rep. Polis on these issues puts them in line with the majority of Americans who think that states should have the freedom to tax and regulate marijuana and that state-legal cannabis businesses shouldn’t be persecuted under federal law.”

Rep. Polis’s proposed legislation, the “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act,” would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and allow states to set and enforce their own marijuana policies without federal interference. This would not only give each state the freedom to choose its approach, but also remove the many unintended consequences of the current conflict between state and federal marijuana laws. The most critical of these are the lack of banking access for cannabis businesses and the outdated 280E tax code provision which forces legal marijuana businesses to pay effective federal tax rates of 50% to 85%, a crippling burden for businesses doing their best to play by the rules.

“Over the past year, Colorado has demonstrated that regulating marijuana like alcohol takes money away from criminals and cartels, grows our economy, and keeps marijuana out of the hands of children,” said Rep. Polis in a press release issued earlier today. “While President Obama and the Justice Department have allowed the will of voters in states like Colorado and 22 other jurisdictions to move forward, small business owners, medical marijuana patients, and others who follow state laws still live with the fear that a new administration — or this one — could reverse course and turn them into criminals. It is time for us to replace the failed prohibition with a regulatory system that works and let states and municipalities decide for themselves if they want, or don’t want, to have legal marijuana within their borders.”

Rep. Blumenauer’s legislation, which is contingent on federal marijuana decriminalization, would begin to lay out a federal tax structure that stops treating legal cannabis businesses as criminals.

“It’s time for the federal government to chart a new path forward for marijuana.” said Mr. Blumenauer in the same press release. “Together these bills create a federal framework to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, much like we treat alcohol and tobacco. The federal prohibition of marijuana has been a failure, wasting tax dollars and ruining countless lives. As more states move to legalize marijuana as Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska have done, it’s imperative the federal government become a full partner in building a workable and safe framework.”

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