A lame-duck bite at the SAFER apple?

SAFER BANKING
A lame-duck bite at the SAFER apple? 🍎

Driving the news: Various versions of the The Secure And Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act, or SAFER Act, have passed the Democrat-controlled House multiple times, but have never received a full floor vote in the Senate.

The bill would normalize the cannabis industry’s relationship with the broader financial system, allowing federally chartered banks to work with the industry — still considered federally illegal by the federal government. 

It’s a crucial change for a cash-intensive industry where many consumers still aren’t able to make legal purchases on their credit card. 

The jury is still out, however, on whether the bill would solve crucial custodial issues for investors, and whether it creates a safe enough regulatory environment that would let cannabis companies that cultivate and sell in the US to work with Wall Street and list on major domestic exchanges. 

What’s new: Though the bill has failed nine times, by our count, some small sliver of hope remains. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the Republican cosponsor of the legislation, told Politico this week that he’s hopeful to pass the bill before the end of the year.

And Senate Democrats, including cosponsor Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Marijuana Moment that there may be a slim pathway to passing the bill outright — or by attaching it to a bigger spending bill like the National Defense Authorization Act — during the upcoming lame duck session. 

The bill passed the Banking Committee earlier this year. 

What they’re saying: “I hope so,” Brown said, when asked if the bill would come to floor vote in the Senate. “[W]e’re trying to line up the vote.”

But he added that he doesn’t know what Schumer’s priorities are, given President-elect Trump’s looming inauguration, and that “Republicans are going to try and slow-walk everything.”

And Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a onetime opponent of the bill and now supporter, also told Politico he’s hopeful of attaching it to the NDAA. 

Back up for a second: There’s been much finger pointing about why the relatively narrow cannabis reform bill has never received a full floor vote in the Senate.

Many in the industry point the finger at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has never brought it to a vote. But it’s unclear if he would get enough Republican support to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate, as both Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) have claimed there isn’t enough Republican support for the bill to pass. 

What’s next: Far more Democrats support the legislation than Republicans, which makes the path for passage even narrower next year, when Republicans take over as majority in both chambers.

The next Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, hails from a deep-Red state that rejected legalization twice. Like we’ve written in the past, once the new Congress takes over, cannabis reform will be all up to the Republicans now under Trump.

It’s possible that if the bill doesn’t pass during the lame-duck, lawmakers kill it for good and look to other types of cannabis reform — if they take up cannabis reform at all. We’ll soon find out. 

And more: It appears that Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s proposed Farm Bill text, which we wrote about yesterday, won’t be taken up during the lame duck session. It’s more likely the 2018 version gets extended — in which case, current hemp rules would remain.

-JB

“These are all half measures — you can even argue half-ass measures,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Ask a Pol on whether he would support various federal cannabis reform moves, like the SAFER Banking Act, a banking bill, or reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III drug. 

“We probably need to look at a federal comprehensive framework to deal with the banking issues, scheduling issue, but, I think, in my opinion, we need a federal regimen that's not unlike what we have for tobacco and alcohol, where you authenticate the crops on the front end, you mandate flavorings, delivery methods through the FDA and you allow banking…”

Tillis added that he wouldn’t support the SAFER Banking Act, traditionally thought of as the most palatable cannabis bill for Congressional Republicans, because it would “put us further away” from a more comprehensive framework governing cannabis at the federal level.

Groups try and push DEA out of rescheduling hearing 👀

This must be the most chaotic Administrative Law Judge hearing ever. Last night, Village Farms International and Hemp for Victory filed a joint motion to disqualify the Drug Enforcement Administration from the upcoming December 2 Administrative Law Judge hearing, the first step in the rescheduling process, and replace it with the Department of Justice, over concerns that DEA officials had private conversations with Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), an anti-legalization group, ahead of the planned hearing because SAM’s founder, Kevin Sabet, tweeted about the conversations. Wow. Read more from The Washington Post.

And last week, Panacea Plant Sciences CEO David Heldreth filed a lawsuit requesting to stop the rescheduling process over concerns that the federal government was violating several laws. Yesterday, he filed a motion with the DEA to delay the December 2 hearing until Trump takes office. Heldreth was not selected as one of 25 witnesses for the hearing. It will still likely take place on December 2, though no witness testimony will be heard. 

Minnesota denies two-thirds of social equity applicants 📉

Minnesota denied over two-thirds of social equity cannabis license applicants, over what the state alleged were applicants “flooding the zone,” or submitting multiple applications to game the lottery, as well as predatory investors disguising their involvement as the true parties of interest in the application. Read more from MinnPost. 

The Beer Institute proposes cannabis regulations 🍺

The Beer Institute, an industry trade group, proposed regulations for the cannabis and intoxicating hemp industries — which are tighter than those for alcohol. The proposed regulations include a “zero-tolerance,” policy on driving after consuming cannabis, and it said that cannabis legalization should be left up to the will of American voters. Read their proposal. 

Cannabis lobbying group hires Trump campaign alum 🇺🇸

The US Cannabis Council, a large industry trade group, hired Mercury Public Affairs to lobby on federal cannabis reform. The lobbyist on the account is Brian Lanza, who served as communications director for President-elect Trump’s first transition, The Hill reports. 

Nebraska’s attorney general will certify medical cannabis results 🌿

Nebraska’s attorney general, Mike Hilgers, said on Tuesday that his office will certify the results of two ballot initiatives in the state that legalized medical cannabis and set up a regulatory framework for the market, despite two looming lawsuits over how the signatures were collected so the measures could appear on the ballot on Election Day earlier this month, reports The Nebraska Examiner. 

Nabis, a cannabis wholesale platform, said on Tuesday that it officially launched in New York. Read more about the New York market turnaround here and check out our conversation with Nabis’ CEO from last year’s MJBizCon.

Here’s the average price of a pre-roll by state, per a new report from Custom Cones USA and Headset, a cannabis industry analytics firm. Here’s the full report.

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