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Another step towards  

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Photo credit: Cannabis Trade Federation 

Colorado Leads Board members last week were fortunate to meet with the Colorado Trade Federation’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force, which was holding a retreat in Colorado.  The group toured Dixie Brands, Native Roots and LivWell and met with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. 

The 26-member task force is made up of a diverse and experienced group of prominent national minority business and cannabis industry leaders focused on developing more diversity, equity and inclusion in the cannabis industry.  The group is also creating benchmarks and goals to measure the industry’s progress and crafting policy proposals that may be used in future legislation.  

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Colorado’s own U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn said last weekend Saturday that marijuana dispensaries operating on the same streets as churches is “evidence” of the “spiritual war our nation is entrenched in.” 

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Colorado Leads Welcomes
U.S. Senator Cory Gardner

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Colorado Leads members last week met with U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who introduced the STATES Act with Massachusetts Democrat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act so states have the right to decide whether to legalize marijuana without facing repercussions from federal law enforcement.  

Gardner noted that the winds of change are moving slowly through Congress, but they are blowing in the right direction.  Senators who wouldn’t touch the issue a year or two ago are now open to discussing it. 

Gardner is also a co-sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act, which would prevent federal banking regulators from prosecuting banks for working with cannabis-related businesses that comply with state laws.

The playing field

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Marketwatch takes a deep dive into the mixed results of cannabis equity programs, the hurdles facing people of color trying to break into the cannabis industry and some prominent figures in the industry who made equity and diversity a cornerstone of their business plan. 

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We leave you with this . . . 

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U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams says cannabis is three times stronger now than in the 1990s. “This ain’t your mother’s marijuana,” he said a week ago.  

Arguing against this position is Canadian Dana Larsen, whose Twitter thread is well worth the read. We promise. 

Not your father’s Family Feud … 

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One can’t help but wonder – for those of you old enough to remember Richard Dawson, the original host of Family Feud – what the 1970s would’ve thought of the daytime television question: “what kind of businesses are booming in states where marijuana is legal?” 

And how did the contestants do? Hint: it takes a very, very long time for someone to name dispensary. View on Twitter »

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The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs last week ushered in industry leaders and advocates to testify about the challenges cannabis companies face trying to get basic banking services in states where medical or recreational marijuana is legal. Those testifying urged lawmakers to change federal laws so the industry could access traditional financial services. 

While the hearing was the first-of-its-kind in the GOP-controlled Senate, passing federal legislation still remains an uphill battle. Except for the committee chairman, U.S Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, none of the other GOP committee members attended the hearing. He urged lawmakers to change federal laws to give the budding industry access to traditional financial services. 

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Related: 

Rob Nichols, President and CEO of the American Bankers Association and Jim Nussle President and CEO of the Credit Union National Association, co-authored an Op-Ed calling on Congress to pass marijuana banking legislation. 

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With the STATES Act and SAFE Banking Act, the cannabis lobby is on track to break a new record. 

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U.S Sen. Cory Gardner continues to urge the federal government to pass the SAFE Banking Act and the STATES Act:

Colorado Leads’ members . . .  leading 

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Last week, the Denver Business Journal held its second Business of Cannabis event. Two Colorado Leads’ members were part of the panel: Native Roots represented by Director of Public Affairs Shannon Fender and Vicente Sederberg represented by Vice President of Government Affairs Jordan Wellington. 

The focus was on “what Colorado cannabis companies and the ancillary businesses that serve them should expect in the wake of new legislation that was recently signed by Gov. Jared Polis.”

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U.S. Court of Appeals tells DEA to get its act together

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York), in a groundbreaking decision, warned the DEA that it may take matters into its own hands if the DEA doesn’t “promptly” consider medical cannabis patients’ rescheduling request.

 “Taking the facts as alleged, and, accordingly, taking the supposed benefits some Plaintiffs have experienced from marijuana as true as well, we—like the District Court below—are struck by the transformative effects this drug has assertedly had on some Plaintiffs’ lives. As a result, we are troubled by the uncertainty under which Plaintiffs must currently live.”

 “It is possible that the current law, though rational once, is now heading towards irrationality; it may even conceivably be that it has gotten there already.”

Stay tuned …. Story here.

Robert Reich weighs in on why the country must legalize marijuana. 

‘The federal prohibition of marijuana has been unnecessarily cruel—wasting billions of dollars, unjustly harming millions of lives, and furthering racist policies.’

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Ouch . . . Again

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Presidential hopeful John Hickenlooper blasted for what some call cannabis revisionist history. 

A fundraising appeal from the former two-term governor appeared as though he were taking credit for the state’s legalization of marijuana in 2014 as well as some of the incremental changes that preceded the full-on legalization.

“While I was Governor, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana. And we worked to address the social and racial inequities that plague marijuana sentencing,” one of the images from the post said.

“This seems like an egregious revision of history to claim you were at all progressive on social justice issues related to cannabis,” tweeted Jake Browne, a former marijuana critic for the Denver Post.

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