A senator from a state on the cusp of legalizing adult-use cannabis and another from a state with the oldest legal adult-use program in the country are coming together over a new bill that would protect any state that has legalized cannabis for any reason or is seeking to do so.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.), who supported marijuana legalization in Massachusetts, is teaming up with Senator Cory Gardner (R-Co.), who opposed legalization in his state, to propose bi-partisan legislation to let states chart their own course on cannabis.
Sens. Warren and Gardner Want To Let States Choose Their Own Destiny
In an interview with NBC’s Morning Joe, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said that policy decisions about marijuana are a “place for the federal government to recede and let states take the lead.”
Warren reminded viewers that the federal prohibition on cannabis prohibits state-legal cannabis businesses from accessing key resources. She referenced the familiar cash problem faced by cannabis businesses who cannot bank with federally insured financial institutions. But federal prohibition hurts the legal cannabis industry in other ways, making it harder to get insurance coverage, for example.
Federal prohibition creates “all these crazy fallout pieces,” Sen. Warren said on Morning Joe. “It’s dangerous and it’s dumb.”
Colorado Senator Cory Gardner echoed Warren’s arguments. But he also placed emphasis on the issue as fundamentally one about states’ rights. For Gardner, marijuana legislation presents an ideal opportunity to champion the federalism many Framers imagined when they penned the U.S. Constitution.
“[States are] laboratories of democracy,” Gardner said during the interview.
Bi-Partisan Bill Won’t Legalize Cannabis, But It Would Establish Intra-State Federal Guidelines
According to Boston Magazine, in a press conference formally announcing