Natalie Fertig, federal cannabis policy reporter for Politico Pro, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest in marijuana legalization in the United States.

Cheddar Politics

The State of Cannabis Legalization in America

friends as more and more states are legalizing cannabis. The Senate finally making some strides in this space. Senate leaders now asking fellow lawmakers to weigh in on one of the provisions of the bill. This would federally legalized marijuana, that they plan to file this in the next few weeks. So joining us now to discuss, is Natalie fertig federal cannabis policy reporter over a political pro, such a pleasure to have you here nancy, such good to talk to you about all of this. So, chuck schumer, Cory booker and Ron Wyden released a dear colleague memo last week focusing on legalizing cannabis. What exactly are the senators asking for here, Natalie. So they're just asking for input from their colleagues on this bill. Um, Schumer introduced the bill not formally into the Senate, but as a discussion draft last summer and at that time they opened up comments for anyone from the public to sound off on the bill and how it would impact them. They got more than 1800 comments. Um, they've told me, Senator Booker told me last week or maybe the week before that they have gone through those comments and they've already made some significant changes to their legislation as it stands. And now schumer saying, hey, well the rest of our colleagues, the other senators here, both chairs of different committees that this bill would have to pass through and also senators who hail from states that have some sort of legal, recreational or medical marijuana. Would you guys chime in also on this bill and tell us what you think. Okay, so this bill is trying to write a lot of the past wrongs also to ensure that the federal government is matching sort of the advancements that we're seeing in the states. Are we expecting this bill to actually pass here? You know, I think the question is more when I don't know if there's going to be time left in this Senate for them to get a bill that is still this um, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't have broad support in the Senate, like it has in the House, um, to the floor. You know, schumer does not have all 50 democrats on board with the broad concept of cannabis de scheduling, which is removing it from the controlled substances act. But you know, he could get a couple republicans here and there, but there are certain things in his bill, like some social equity provisions that then chase away some of the republicans that might be in favor of broad decriminalization. So, you know, there's a lot of hurdles for the bill, but then getting it to the floor in the midst of, you know, the Senate hasn't even passed this year's budget yet in the Senate and the House together, but still Congress's behind on a lot of things right now and cannabis is just one of many issues that they are taking up. So I think it's, I mean, almost every bill in the Senate right now. It's, it's a tall ask to say when or if it's going to pass and cannabis is no different. Yeah, Natalie, I want to read what chuck schumer posted on twitter. He said as Senate majority leader, I can set priorities and comprehensive federal cannabis legalization with justice for communities most impacted by the war on drugs is a Senate priority. I, I guess what's the significance of this marijuana bill, I guess, compared to maybe the one that we're seeing nancy mace in the House, a Republican do from south Carolina. Well, the two bills are pretty different. Schumer's bill has a lot more social equity provisions. Nancy Mace is bill is a really good example of what republicans could be more in favor of, um, that bill de schedule cannabis, which which would let states complete, could create completely federally legal cannabis industries right now. They're just legal in the state level, not federally. And it would expunge cannabis records at the federal level. It doesn't go further than that schumer's bill goes much further than that. It levies a higher excise tax so that it can create grant programs for people who have been disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs. But the politics of the two bills are also very different. Not just the policy nancy Mace is a freshman lawmaker in the minority party in the House and the majority party in the House has its own decriminalization bill that does include social equity provisions, the more act and that bill is led by judiciary, Chairman, uh jerry Nadler and the House might pass that bill in december of 2020 in the last Congress. And I know that they are talking about bringing it up through committee and to the floor again this year, partially because they're getting sick of waiting for the Senate to move on this. There was they kind of stepped back for a bit when schumer at the beginning of this year said, hey, we're going to do something on this. But the Senate has been taking a long time, both on cannabis and a lot of other issues. And it's been there going to be introducing a bill in the Senate, hopefully in april is the sort of not totally set goal. Um you know, that's only a few months from the midterms, the closer that you get to midterms, the more fraught passing any legislation gets. Um So but then at the same time, you know, politically political differences, this is the majority leader of the United States Senate that is backing the C. A. O. A. And that's a very different setting than uh you know, a freshman republican from south Carolina. But I think both bills are very interesting in their own right. No, you bring up such a valid point, but I want to talk about is getting close to the midterms because just a few months ago rand paul made some news because he essentially said, look, if democrats want to pass any sort of legalization bill when it comes to cannabis, they should probably do it in this session of Congress? Because who knows, let's just say if republicans take the House, how things might be a little bit different and then obviously you have conflicting views in the Senate. So it's now really sort of the time now in terms of the legalization window, for fear of what happens in november. I think that if democrats lose either chamber in november, this becomes a multiyear conversation. Um both, I mean mitch McConnell for sure is not on board with decriminalization, kevin McCarthy, the leader of the republicans in the house comes from a legal state California, he has cannabis businesses in his district, he has voted in favor of the Safe banking act, which is a more piecemeal bill that helps cannabis businesses access banking. He has not come out in favor of decriminalization, he could maybe be brought around to it, but it's not going to be a priority for him. Um, nancy, Pelosi and House Leadership, House democrat leadership have backed decriminalization have made it a priority already in the last Congress and now democrats in the Senate are making it a priority in this. Congress. If democrats want to see cannabis decriminalization get past this is their best shot. The question is, can they write a bill that is going to get enough moderates on board without losing the progressives and that's gonna be a very tough needle to thread and I'm not actually sure if it's going to rise to the level of priority with all of the other things going on to break through that window, break through that ceiling. No good point, indeed. A great insight. Natalie fertig is the federal cannabis policy reporter for political pro Natalie. Thank you so much for joining us.