{"id":7225,"date":"2017-02-16T19:28:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T19:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2465298"},"modified":"2017-02-16T19:28:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T19:28:25","slug":"u-s-rep-jared-polis-joins-with-congressional-colleagues-to-create-cannabis-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/u-s-rep-jared-polis-joins-with-congressional-colleagues-to-create-cannabis-caucus\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Jared Polis joins with congressional colleagues to create Cannabis Caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/u-s-rep-jared-polis-joins-with-congressional-colleagues-to-create-cannabis-caucus\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Marijuana now has its own official club in Congress, thanks to Colorado congressman Jared Polis and three of his colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>The Boulder lawmaker on Thursday joined with fellow Democrat Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, as well as Republicans Dana Rohrabacher of California and Don Young of Alaska, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/06\/congress-marijuana-legislation-cannabis-caucus\/72897\/\">launching the Cannabis Caucus<\/a> \u2014 a group dedicated to promoting and protecting the nascent industry of legalized weed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really at the tipping point on marijuana reform,\u201d said Polis, who highlighted the growing number of states that have legalized for various uses. \u201cFor the first time, it\u2019s a majority of Americans that will have access to medical or recreational marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The effort comes at a critical time for the industry. Though it\u2019s made strides nationally, and settled comfortably in Colorado since sales of recreational marijuana began in 2014, there remain a number of pressing issues \u2014 starting with President Donald Trump\u2019s appointment of Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>The former Alabama senator has raised concerns about the drug and said previously that \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/11\/18\/trump-attorney-general-marijuana-legalization-enforcement\/67892\/\">good people don\u2019t smoke marijuana<\/a>.\u201d The attitude has prompted anxiety among cannabis companies who are nervous that federal authorities under Trump and Sessions could take a more combative stance toward states that have legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of us have expressed concerns about the new attorney general,\u201d Polis said. \u201cWe\u2019re also cautiously hopeful that President Trump will maintain a commitment he made on the campaign trail where he said it would be a state issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added the Cannabis Caucus also will be active on legislation related to marijuana. \u201cIssues ranging from banking to tax deductions to employment issues to potential for enforcement,\u201d said Polis, who highlighted his own bill that to regulate weed like alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>The new Cannabis Caucus will be among <a href=\"https:\/\/cha.house.gov\/sites\/republicans.cha.house.gov\/files\/documents\/115CMOList%282.6.17%29.pdf\">more than 200 different issue-related groups<\/a> that have attracted like-minded members of the House. They range from the serious, such as the Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Anti-Semitism, to groups that have rallied around specific causes or industries, including the Bourbon Caucus, the Motorcycle Caucus and the Rugby Caucus.<\/p>\n<h3>Talking marijuana reform in Washington<\/h3>\n<p><em>Here\u2019s what the founding members of the Cannabis Caucus had to say at a news conference Thursday:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>JARED POLIS, D-Colorado<\/strong><br \/>\u201cWe\u2019re really starting to see policymakers view the cannabis industry more favorably for what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The industry, Polis said, provides money for schools, creates jobs and bolsters the economy as opposed to supporting cartels and addicts. <\/p>\n<p>This caucus \u201cis an opportunity to show that the consumers and entrepreneurs in the marijuana industry are an important part of the American economy and there\u2019s an impact on jobs if the federal government doesn\u2019t repeal this outdated provision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The next challenge, he said, is to take the model adopted by states such as Colorado and Washington \u201cand enable all states to follow it \u2014 free from federal bullying and federal interference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organization is seeking a commonsense approach to address \u201cantiquated provisions\u201d equating marijuana to heroin, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be a place where we rely on the goodwill of which side of the bed any attorney general wakes up on at any given day. That\u2019s why we are pursuing statutory changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>DON YOUNG, R-Alaska<\/strong><br \/>\u201cYou have to be for states\u2019 rights or against states\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>DANA ROHRABACHER, R-California<\/strong><br \/>Rohrabacher spoke of his friend and colleague Jeff Sessions as a man of principle and a man of honor. And although he may disagree with the principles of the caucus, Sessions is \u201csomeone who understands the president of the United States is the one who makes the policy for the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To Rohrabacher, it\u2019s a matter of supporting the individual freedoms supported by the U.S. Constitution. The Founding Fathers did not want the federal government to interfere in people\u2019s personal freedoms, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Supporting states\u2019 rights and independent freedoms should remain consistent: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, you can\u2019t make that argument over here and then just ignore the fact that it\u2019s applicable to this other area of decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rohrabacher added that the caucus needs to \u201ctouch people\u2019s hearts as well as their heads,\u201d saying the issue is critical to some Americans\u2019 health and well-being. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are suffering. The law is wrong. We have a caucus together, a bipartisan caucus. We\u2019re going to change that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>EARL BLUMENAUER, D-Oregon<\/strong><br \/>Concerning taxes and banking, Blumenauer mentioned IRS code 280E, which disallows credits and deductions for income generated from the sale of controlled substances. He said a fix will be proposed via standalone legislation, but could be achieved \u201cin the context of the back and forth of tax work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also noted last year that about 20 members of Congress participated in a bipartisan working group on marijuana issues. <\/p>\n<p><em>Denver Post reporter Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marijuana now has its own official club in Congress, thanks to Colorado congressman Jared Polis and three of his colleagues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6857,117,854,6813,77,6815,6826,5667,9,5019,441,1,3,1525,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6859,2695,3427,6818,2655,6820,6828,5673,5022,3015,4093],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}