On the #domestic front, #House lawmakers approve a number of #cannabis-related measures as part of sweeping #federal spending legislation. Here’s the breakdown: One of the most significant #marijuana amendments to the appropriations package would prevent the #Treasury Department from using allocated funds to penalize #financial institutions for serving state-legal marijuana businesses. The protections are more modest, and therefore may have a better chance of passing, than those in the standalone cannabis banking measure passed by the House four times but never taken up by the Senate, the SAFE Banking Act. The legislation would also legalize marijuana sales in #Washington D.C. by leaving out a longstanding rider which prohibited the nation’s #capital city from using their own #tax #revenue to regulate #adult-use cannabis commerce. Several other provisions of the bill address marijuana research by mandating broader access to Schedule 1 drugs for use by #scientists, urging the #National Institute of Drug Abuse to expand cannabis studies, and protecting universities with cannabis programs. Many #hemp-related measures were also included in the spending package, with 17 #million dollars to support federal hemp production, 500,000 for genetic hemp #research, and an extension of the 2014 hemp pilot program to 2023, giving state #agriculture departments more time to come into compliance with federal law. Other provisions were more advisory in nature, like the one encouraging federal agencies to reconsider their cannabis #employment policies, and another, calling on the #FDA to finally come up with regulations for #CBD in food and #dietary supplements, after reviewing the issue since 2019. Amendments that didn’t make it into the final legislation include protections for marijuana consumers in public housing and 25 million dollars in funding to clean up illegal grow sites on federal land in #California. Because the #Senate has yet to act on their own version of the spending legislation, it’s unclear which cannabis reform proposals they will include, and which will be enacted into law following bicameral #negotiations.
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