The Democrats won the presidency and narrowly retained the U.S. House. Control of the U.S. Senate will be determined in a January runoff. The President still won’t concede or start a transition process.

So what does this mean in the short term for the industry?

There are some potentially positive developments, but we will have to wait and see (again) what happens in the next few weeks.

Here’s the current federal landscape:

• House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told lawmakers last week that he would hold a vote in December on a bill that would decriminalize cannabis, create a process to expunge nonviolent pot convictions and remove the drug from the Controlled Substances Act.  It is expected to pass the House, but the Senate? The House vote may end up being largely symbolic, experts say.
• NORML released a public letter recommending that Biden install an attorney general who favors cannabis legalization. “We cannot allow this sort of Reefer Madness to continue to flourish at the Department of Justice,” the letter stated.
• 420 IMPAC, or 420 Interstate Marijuana PAC, has been formed to advance the industry’s influence in Congress.In addition to supporting pro-cannabis legislation, the PAC is aimed at removing “prohibitionist” lawmakers and is focused on fundraising for the 2022 midterms. Read more here.
• Senate appropriators have released several 2021 spending bills that include cannabis-related provisions.  They include measures banning Washington, D.C. from using its own local tax dollars to implement a regulated marijuana market, protecting state medical cannabis programs from federal intervention, and removing barriers to marijuana research caused by federal prohibition. The House released their cannabis-related spending bills over the summer.