Marijuana Business Magazine January 2019

Republican U.S. Rep. “Ken Buck, who was the chair on the no-on-legalization campaign in Colorado (in 2012), is a co-sponsor in the House.” The ramifications of such a bill for the cannabis industry are staggering. AWorld of Possibilities If 280E no longer applied to state-legal MJ companies, the profit margins for these businesses would immediately balloon, giving them far more flexibility to expand and explore new market opportunities. If banking access were opened up, there would almost certainly be a parallel rush to obtain business loans and begin accepting credit cards at all retail locations in addition to even more day-to-day applications.  The passage of such a landmark bill could topple a lot of other domi- nos in coming years, Levine said. The States Act would leave many cannabis-related issues still to be tackled by federal lawmakers, including: • Access for military veterans to medical marijuana. • Barriers to medical research because of marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. • The prohibition on interstate and international commerce and shipping.  But if Congress does pass the States Act or something similar, it likely will make further reforms much easier to get through both the House and Senate, which could bode well for how quickly Congress could act on other cannabis issues.  For instance, there will be mem- bers of Congress who will want to get the U.S. marijuana industry on a competitive level with Canadian com- panies already exporting cannabis across the globe.  Such progress will likely have to wait for now. And Levine warned that cannabis opponents also are mar- shaling their resources in DC to fight any and all federal reforms—meaning nothing is certain.  “We’re not going to get a free ride to pass this legislation,” Levine said of the States Act. “We can expect there are going to be a lot of folks who are going to fight us on this, because they see it as game-changing legislation.”  But, as Ohio’s Joyce noted, “There’s a lot of energy out there to get this over the hump.” John Schroyer is a senior reporter at Marijuana Business Daily based in Sacramento, California. Reach him at johns@mjbizdaily.com . • Purge Oxygen • Extend Shelf Life regardless of your package preference LIQUID NITROGEN DOSING 4 Barten Lane, Woburn, MA 01801, USA T 781-933-3570 | F 781-932-9428 | sales@vacuumbarrier.com | vacuumbarrier.com