{"id":8588,"date":"2018-12-19T00:02:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T00:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3303562"},"modified":"2018-12-19T00:02:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T00:02:32","slug":"sen-cory-gardner-fails-to-get-marijuana-reform-into-criminal-justice-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/sen-cory-gardner-fails-to-get-marijuana-reform-into-criminal-justice-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Cory Gardner fails to get marijuana reform into criminal justice bill"},"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\/sen-cory-gardner-fails-to-get-marijuana-reform-into-criminal-justice-bill\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/sen-cory-gardner-fails-to-get-marijuana-reform-into-criminal-justice-bill.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The federal government won\u2019t be easing its laws on marijuana as part of a criminal justice reform bill that\u2019s expected to pass this week.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, had hoped <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/12\/14\/cory-gardner-marijuana-banking\/\">to attach an amendment<\/a> to the proposed First Step Act to remove the threat of federal prosecution in states where cannabis is legal and lift restrictions on federally insured banks, which are currently barred from working with marijuana businesses. But Gardner and other senators hoping to offer amendments of their own were blocked by a procedural maneuver from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has made criminal justice reform a priority during the lame-duck session.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner then sought unanimous consent for his amendment and was blocked by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who called the idea a \u201cback door to legalization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re the opposite of feeling defeated. We\u2019re feeling energized,\u201d\u00a0Cannabis Trade Federation CEO Neal Levine said shortly after the amendment failed. \u201cWe just had a U.S. senator, who is in a leadership position in his party, say on the floor of Congress that he\u2019s not going to give up this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gardner\u2019s amendment mirrors a bill he introduced with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, in June. Gardner said he plans to reintroduce that bill during the next Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we can get a vote on it, I feel very confident we can get it passed,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n<p>His office added that President Donald Trump still supports the idea.<\/p>\n<p>Jerrod Dobkin, a spokesman for Gardner, told The Denver Post that the senator spoke with the president Tuesday about his plan to ease federal regulations on cannabis, and the president \u201creiterated his support\u201d for the bill and pledged to sign it if it gets to his desk.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s an important point for Levine, who said there are a lot of proposed marijuana bills that go further than Gardner\u2019s bill, which is called the STATES Act. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cIf we thought they had a chance to be passed into law, we would support those bills with everything we had,\u201d Levine said. \u201cThere\u2019s only one piece of legislation that we\u2019ve heard of consistently that can pass Congress and that the president says he would sign into law, and that\u2019s the STATES Act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The federal government won&#8217;t be easing its laws on marijuana as part of a criminal justice reform bill that&#8217;s expected to pass this week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,6811,6857,7163,5662,7469,6813,77,5577,5667,9,7293,6855,5019,441,1,3,5125,61,1736],"tags":[2632,6816,6859,7165,5668,7472,6818,2655,5580,5673,7294,6856,5022,3015,5128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588"}],"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=8588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}