USA Roundup: Federal, Colorado

FEDERAL

Article Marijuana Stocks.com

This Is How The Trump Administration Is Impacting The Marijuana Industry

http://marijuanastocks.com/this-is-how-the-trump-administration-is-impacting-the-marijuana-industry/

The marijuana sector is one of the quickest growing industry’s in the country — projections for this year could add up to billions of dollars in sales. However with a new administration at the wheel in Washington, D.C., one that is potentially less favorable to legalization, marijuana entrepreneurs and investors alike are dealing with a difficult time.

Startups, analysts, and investors convened this week at the Marijuana Business Daily’s Conference and Expo just outside the nation’s capital in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The issue on everyone’s minds: what the marijuana industry is depicted as under a Trump presidency, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Press Secretary Sean Spicer have indicated the possibility for sterner enforcement at the federal level, where marijuana is technically illegal. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to request for comment.

“I am concerned about what I am hearing, but we’ve been through several administrations at this point, and this is a matter of states’ rights,” stated Christie Lunsford, COO of Pro MAX Grow, which sells LED horticultural lighting for licensed marijuana growers and is based in Tappan, N.Y.

“I think the impact we will see coming out of Washington, D.C., is fewer investors coming into space … fewer people launching businesses direct to the plant — cultivation, dispensing and manufacturing. That’s where you’re going to see people not wanting to enter the cannabis space,” she stated.

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ROLLING STONE: Why Marijuana Business Owners Are Storming Capitol Hill

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/why-marijuana-business-owners-are-storming-capitol-hill-w482748

Cannabis business owners from across the country have come to Washington, D.C., to demand fair treatment – and both sides of the aisle are listening

There’s a crowd of a few dozen people mingling about the Capitol grounds in dark suits, striped ties, power dresses and sunglasses on a summer-like spring day in the nation’s steamy capital. They look like they’re ready for a Republican fundraiser, but they’re actually marijuana business owners – everything from edible bakers to dispensary owners – from 20 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. There are no Birkenstocks or marijuana leaves in sight, well except one old hippy draped in a marijuana flag and one U.S. Congressman, Democrat Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, rocking a bowtie polka dotted with cannabis leaves.t

The congressman is flanked by five of his Democratic colleagues and one Republican who are all here pushing their latest effort to reform the nation’s banking laws when it comes to the nation’s burgeoning legal marijuana industry, because marijuana is still on the federal books as a Schedule I narcotic, along with the likes of heroin and peyote. These lawmakers have an eager audience. A group of about 250 marijuana business owners have been storming congressional offices this week, trying to convince Republicans and Democrats alike to treat their businesses like every other legal business in the nation: They want access to the banking industry so they don’t have to operate as all cash businesses. They also want Section 280E – an obscure section of the tax code that bars cannabis businesses from taking deductions – changed, because it hits them with double and sometimes triple the tax penalty of federally recognized businesses. Democrats from the states that first legalized recreational weed have long championed the effort, but they’re now slowly picking up Republican support, too.

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COLORADO

Federal bills from Colorado legislators seek to shield state marijuana laws, open banking

Reps. Diana DeGette and Mike Coffman push legislation as states’ rights issue; Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner seek more accessible financial services for cannabis businesses

http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/05/18/federal-marijuana-bill-protect-state-laws-colorado-rep-diana-degette-mike-coffman/79759/

Colorado federal lawmakers this week amplified efforts to protect state-enacted marijuana laws and cannabis businesses.

Reps. Diana DeGette and Mike Coffman on Thursday introduced the Respect States’ and Citizens’ Rights Act of 2017, which would add a provision to the Controlled Substances Act that would prevent federal preemption of state law. A day earlier, Colorado’s two senators threw their support behind banking legislation for the marijuana industry.

DeGette, a Democrat, and Coffman, a Republican, said in interviews Thursday that they resurrected their legislation — it previously was introduced in 2012, 2013 and 2015 — because of the saber-rattling that’s coming from the new administration around drugs, crime and marijuana enforcement.

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