Rescheduling of Cannabis

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration announced the long-awaited rescheduling of cannabis from schedule I to schedule III.

This reschedule eliminates the vestige of the failed war on drugs started by the Nixon administration. Contrary to science, it was used for political purposes against Black Americans, young Americans.

A schedule I controlled substance, which cannabis has been for over 50 years, is one that has no medicinal value and is highly addictive. At the time the Nixon administration made that determination, they knew that that was false. It is not highly addictive, and it has, in fact, medicinal purposes. That has been demonstrated by vote after vote by Americans across the country that recognize that medical cannabis has tremendous therapeutic features.

I could not be more excited or optimistic that we are finally on the homestretch to end the failed and misguided war on drugs. This action by the Biden administration ties together many of our initiatives, from justice to research to tax fairness, and charts the path for more progress sooner.

One of the overhauls here is the prohibition of the State legal cannabis businesses from banking services. Every day in the United States, there are people with shopping bags full of $20 bills that they use to pay their State taxes.

Think of it. It is outrageous. It has made these State legal cannabis businesses sitting ducks for robbery, and it severely handicaps their ability to work in a constructive fashion.

Furthermore, what is going to happen with this rescheduling is it is finally going to allow State legal cannabis businesses to fully deduct their business expenses.

Right now, due to a provision known as 280 of the tax code, these businesses are prohibited from deducting legitimate business expenses.

As a result, State legal cannabis businesses pay two, three, maybe four times more than a comparable noncannabis business. It is outrageous. It poses serious problems in terms of their profitability and being able to thrive.

These decisions are going to raise the profile of an issue very important to some of us but which has never gained the attention it deserves or the momentum that it demands.

We have made some progress here in the House. We have passed safe banking seven times with overwhelming bipartisan support, but it never could quite get across the finish line.

This rescheduling by the Biden administration is going to help us change that, and it is going to help the almost half a million people who work in the industry, the $40 billion a year of economic activity, eliminate the injustice, and perhaps, most of all, it will usher in a new era of protections because right now, somebody who buys their marijuana from a corner drug dealer in a park, that person has no license to lose. It doesn't check for ID.

Treating marijuana in a thoughtful fashion is going to help us solve the racial injustice that has been evidenced against Black, against young people.

It is going to be able to open up a whole array of cannabis products that will make a big difference in communities across the country.

Today's decision changes all of that, and there is no going back. In this troubled Congress, it will also pave the path for building on our bipartisan Cannabis Caucus, an example where people can come together to work on something that can unite us rather than divide us.

The rescheduling of cannabis is an important step in that direction and will have profound impacts from coast to coast.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source