NORML Submits Comments On Senate Leaders’ Federal Marijuana Reform Proposal

Washington, DC: NORML submitted its comments today suggesting improvements to the recently introduced discussion draft legislation, “The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act,” offered by Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, and Senator Cory Booker.

“We appreciate the leadership by Senators Schumer, Booker, and Wyden in their efforts to end America’s failed, unjust, and racially biased experiment with cannabis prohibition. The CAOA draft represents a thoughtful path forward toward ending federal marijuana criminalization. We are confident that similar language, once finalized and formally introduced in the US Senate, will possess bipartisan appeal — as we know that voters of all political parties strongly support repealing the federal government’s failed marijuana policies,” said NORML Political Director Justin Strekal. 

He added: “While no legislation is perfect, the CAOA represents a legislative vehicle that could navigate its way to the President’s desk for his signature. Never before have we been able to say that.”

NORML’s feedback calls for:

• Strengthening civic protections, including record relief, to provide justice to those previously wronged by federal marijuana criminalization; 
• Revising outdated employment policies regarding non-scientific testing for trace metabolic elements of THC;
• Ensuring that small and local businesses can compete both with larger corporations and the illicit market by reducing regulatory and tax burdens;
• Narrowing the scope of the proposed excise tax to exempt medical cannabis consumer markets;
• Balancing the roles of the FDA, TTB, ATF, and antitrust regulators in a manner that is consistent with other adult-use substances, such as alcohol or tobacco, to ensure non-disruption of currently operational state programs and promoting increased local ownership in the future iterations of the marketplace.

You can read NORML’s submission to Senators Schumer, Booker, and Wyden here. 

You can read the summary of the discussion draft here. You can read the full draft proposal here. You can read NORML’s summary of the discussion draft here.