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Thank you to Representative Barbara Lee for her longstanding leadership on these issues. She has authored and introduced bills that are that are the foundation of key provisions of the more act. I am proud to sponsor the more act, a comprehensive marijuana reform bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and to address past injustices with respect to marijuana laws. 30 -, three States and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis and 11 States Have legalized cannabis for recreational use marijuana is now a multi-billion dollar industry. There are people sitting in prison today for marijuana offenses. Those who have served time for marijuana convictions often face second class citizenship when they reenter society. They are denied the right to vote. They struggle to find meaningful work and they have problems that access and quality housing. It's time to. This room. The more act would remove the marijuana would remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances, which means marijuana will be decriminalized at the federal level States will have the ability to regulate marijuana use and even to maintain criminal provisions if they choose to do so. The war on drugs led to unjust prison sentences for marijuana offenses, which has had a disproportionate impact on people of color. The more act would allow. Sponge with the federal marijuana convictions and arrests, the more act would also fund programs within the Department of Justice and the Small Business Administration to provide services to communities most impacted by the war on drugs. The programs would provide job training, reentry services and substance use treatment along with loans to assist small businesses and resources to access marijuana licensing and employment tomorrow. we will Mark up this legislation and reported from. Judiciary Committee a critical step in advancing this important legislation as I mentioned a moment ago, a special thank you to Representative Barbara Lee for her longstanding leadership on these issues, and I mentioned that she authored and introduced bills that foundation of key provisions of the Moran and with that I'll now introduce Representative Barbara Lee. Whoo. First of all, let me just thank you Chairman boy. What a difference a day makes. But also I just wanna thank you for your commitment, not only to this legislation and introducing the more act but also for your commitment to move this bill forward because we all know there were some technical questions that took place and sometimes you know the whole issue of loyalty and commitment to one 's word. somehow sometimes doesn't seem to evolve the way we discussed it with. in this instance, I just wanna thank you again very much in all of We're really helping with these very tough negotiations that led us to today. so this is really a data. I think to celebrate first of all because of the process that chairman Nadler and others adhere to and how they move this bill forward, but also to the substance of what we're doing today and so I have to thank all of our colleagues who are here because without all of you that this never would have happened and to our. I've been working with you for many many many many many years some since the seventies on cannabis reform. I'm thinking of normal now and so just thank you all for staying the course because this is a marathon, but you see with with a great chairman and great members just what we can do together and so thank all of you for your your hard hard work. Never too long. Our federal cannabis policies have been rooted in the past and it's long. Time to change that and so yes, I wanna thank Chairman once again for including the provisions that legalized marijuana at the federal level that provides for comprehensive restorative Justice and this is so important especially for those individuals and communities that have been affected by unjust loss, and it also includes my respect resolution was just extremely important that makes the industry more diverse and more equitable in the business. The job creation space these provisions ensure that we repair and that's extremely important that we repair the harm that communities of color have endured since the failed and racist, which is what it was war on drugs. Communities of color have been left behind on the cannabis reform train right now. less than one fifth of the cannabis industry is owned or operated by people of color and this has got a change. That's why this. Which again is so each historic tomorrow is really again a testament to the groups in this room and the work that we've done to ensure that our cannabis laws are rooted in equality, Justice and fairness. So thank all of you for your incredible support. I look forward to seeing the support the bill move out of the Committee tomorrow. so let's keep up the fight because we know this is just the beginning. We gotta get this bill to the floor and what. Gets to the floor, We gotta make sure that it passes so thank you again. and now I would like to bring up and introduce someone who needs no introduction. but someone who has worked so hard and so diligently for many many years to ensure that the cannabis industry is known and seen as a legitimate industry, which it is in many of our States co-chair of the Cannabis caucus, which I also I'm proud to coach here with Congressman Earl Blumen hour and thank you so much for staying the course on cannabis reform on each and every front and there. There's so many products that we have to fight for and you've been out there for so long. so thank you again and thank you. chairman very much. Thank you. Thank you. Barbara Kind words, and for starting us off with recognition of what Chairman Nadler has done it is true. I've been working on this since 1970 - three almost as long as the journey and I have never felt better dealing with legislation than we are having today. we should thank Joe and Migos for you know there's a little. there's some things going on in the judiciary Committee we Chairman said were promised but to be able to focus on legislation of this magnitude to devote the staff resources and to integrate so many important pieces of legislation that have been introduced over the years into what I think is the best piece of cannabis legislation I've seen this is the culmination of years of work and chairman Nadler. Excited that you're moving to a markup on this we've seen more progress in the last 40 months than we've seen in the last 40 years, and I would say probably in the last 40 weeks with your Committee here in Congress. we're moving forward last year. We developed a blueprint for this Congress to deal with cannabis reform and this is the culmination of the work of those advocates, advocates and activists that barber. We shouldn't settle any longer for incremental change. Those individual pieces of legislation had a role to play. they were important, but we must commit to the restorative Justice. That's in this open up economic opportunities for people of color who in millions of cases over the decades have burn the brunt of unequal application of our nonsensical cannabis problems. We have problems in terms of cannabis law and they are because the federal government. Out of step with reality and with the public, our federal cannabis policy must reflect our values. We're fighting for equality, Justice and opportunities we can and we must do better and this legislation is the vehicle 40 - Seven States now have some form of legal cannabis. The American people have made their feelings clear. We must decriminalize cannabis for adult use of the federal level and deal with those problems of equity. This is Can end the failed prohibition of Congress of cannabis and I thank you Chairman Nagi your team and these wonderful advocates here behind me and in front of me that's gonna get us across the finish line. Thank you very much. Thank you and we'll now hear from another advocate who has played a major on this. She was the chairperson of the small business Committee, which has jurisdiction over some of the provisions that we have to deal with my colleague from New York Representative Velasquez. Good morning everyone. thank you for being here and I want to take this opportunity of course to thank chairman at Nadler for holding this event and bringing them more at to your Committee for America. I also want to thank my colleagues that played an important role for all to be here today and what chairman Nadler has shown or is showing today and the judiciary Committee is that they are not. Touch with the realities of our nation today so many people so many States and so many localities are supporting changes to this law and decriminalizing marijuana and here we are so for everyone out there and for all the activists and advocates yes, elections matter and we're showing that today. This is a landmark bill. Increasingly our society is recognizing that decriminalizing and this this. Advising cannabis is the Progressive and just think to do and I am here to tell you as chair woman of the House Small Business Committee. As we have examined in our feelings, it is also good for small Business Act decriminalize cannabis it will invest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. This is an issue. That my Committee to come for the first time as I got the gavel, I am so glad the more act includes key parts of legislation that I have been championing. I believe that if you are studying is more cannabis business, you should be able to get a loan and more than that you should be able to turn to the small business administration, which provides low cost low interest loans to bottle. Traditionally, traditional lenders may deem too risking so on their you will be able to do so what we are proposing is an opening of the SBA's flagship lending programs like the 78 loans that is working capital micro loans and disaster loans to legitimate direct and indirect cannabis businesses. Additionally, the bill includes language written by my colleagues on the Committee Representative Golden to open the SBA's entrepreneurial development. To this businesses on our committees, Vice chairman Representative Dwight Evans Evans to provide Grant funding to state and local governments so that they can help small businesses navigate cannot licensing unemployment in 2018 consumer spending in this industry past 10 billion dollar for the first time, and it is expected to increase to 20 - three billion dollars. Too clearly, this is an industry ripe for entrepreneurship and financial investment. as lawmakers look to shape the rules around the cells of cannabis. We must be special attention to how we can promote opportunities for entrepreneurs and especially those most impacted by the war on drugs. I am proud to just that and I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to support it. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you very much. We'll now hear from another longtime advocate of marijuana reform. my colleague on the Judiciary Committee. Representative Steve Cohen. Thank you. Thank you, Jerry and all the colleagues that I stand before for their work on this issue and also Senator Booker, who has been as a sponsor of the Cares Act, which I sponsor in the House that deals with some of these topics and then Indiana the past people like Boris Hinchey, Dana Rohrabacher, who worked hard to see that we had marijuana reform. this bill would remove the stain that has put on people's records by noting a crime. At a time when we thought less improperly of marijuana, the truth is the stain, which would be removed from these people's records to expungement is really a stain on the United States Government stain this over 80 - two years old that started with the man named Harry Angelina, who was in the late thirties, started a real war on marijuana and the war on people of color And African-Americans, who were known to use marijuana more than others, at least in the public's perspective and use them as foils for his war. That basically was to create a job for himself and an empire later, Richard Nixon when against the. That were produced by study that he commissioned that said marijuana should be decriminalized, but it worked against his political ambitions and it was less popular received in the South among people who are still supportive of a special force in the Republican Party that didn't agree with those positions and that were part of Richard Nixon's campaign to take over the South. so this will remove. On people's records, but really a stain on the United States of America and we'll also take marijuana out of schedule one where it's in the same class as LSD and heroin as a schedule one drug that has no medical benefit. Just falls we've seen the medical benefits veterans tell us about how it helps him with PTSD, others with cancer and I've seen it with friends who've had chemotherapy and it helps them deal with chemotherapy and it gives them an appetite and it gives them a mindset to where they can even laugh when they're facing death and going through great pain. marijuana is very helpful to people with type using chemotherapy or suffering PTSD and other illnesses, as well as. Depression so it doesn't belong in schedule one in College. I had a couple of friends who used LSD well, I had more than a couple to be honest, but a couple of months very bad fats. They went out of the tops of buildings. They jumped out of Windows in the eleventh floor and died. I don't know if they thought they could fly. I don't know if they just decided to end it all. but I've never known anybody who did that who was smoking marijuana, so it doesn't belong. One Earl Blumen hour said this was probably the best of all the bills. I guess he was saying it's the Aquapaw gold of marijuana legislation. I'm happy to support it. Steve we'll now hear from another leader in this field, the member of the Judiciary Committee, the chairperson of the Progressive Coach person at the Progressive Caucus Representative Pramila Jayapal. Thank you. Thank you so much and what a great day. it is I am so proud to be a member of the Judiciary Committee under the great leadership of our chairman. We have moved. I believe some of the most important legislation for working people across this country through our Committee and I would add the more act to that and I wanna thank the rest of my colleagues here. Let me point out that every member that spoke today is a member of the Progressive caucus, which I'm proud to co-chair but this isn't just an issue for progressives. I wanna make them. Clear and I have actually watched this transition over the time that I have worked as a legislator and an advocate on this issue. I wanna go back to what Representative Lee and then Representative Cohen touched on this as well. I come to this as a civil rights activist that is my background for two decades before coming to Congress and I saw the way in which the war on drugs was a racist war and that it disproportionately burden black and Brown folks across the country voters in my home state of. I knew that this was the right thing to do to legalize marijuana back in 2020 2012 excuse me. We were the first state to legalize cannabis in 2012, and we did this with very broad support, including law enforcement and children's advocates. We did this recognizing again that the war on drugs was a total failure and that as I said, communities of color and particularly young people of color were. Really, we're the ones to bear the brunt, so I am grateful to my colleagues here and to chairman Nadler for introducing and helping us to move through the process, the most Progressive comprehensive cannabis reform bill and the thing that makes this bill really really special is the ways in which it seeks to address the desperate harm on people most adversely impacted by the war on drugs. A yes vote on this bill is a yes to doing the right thing. Say yes to making amends to repairing as Representative Lee said the harm that has been done by government policies to people across the country. It is not a Red or a blue issue. I will tell you that in our state, there was some opposition from the other side and went in 2012. We moved the first piece of legislation, but not a couple of years later when we move the second piece of legislation at that point, it became a bipartisan issue, which is what it is across this country. So. Be extremely proud to vote Yes tomorrow to send the more act to the House floor. This bill needs to be passed and I'm so grateful to my colleagues who have been working on this for so long, but also to all of you who have been such core allies in building a movement of education and organizing that we need in order to get this done. Thank you so much. Thank you we will now hear from two people who've been working on this issue for a long time who have been instrumental in advancing it to where it is first Maria McFarland Sanchez Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Thank you so much chairman and I'm so honored and delighted to be here today. The US is decades of marijuana prohibition have come at a tremendous price. Prohibition has served as an excuse for heavy handed policing for policies like stop and frisk in New York, the seizure of private property with little to no process, large scale deportations and incarceration. even today. more than 650000 people are arrested every year for marijuana offenses, many of them carry. Burden of a conviction for the rest of their lives facing tremendous barriers to accessing jobs, housing College loans and more the right to vote over the decades. Millions have been impacted and those arms have not fallen equally on all Americans. Instead, black and Brown people have born the brunt of them. Despite using marijuana at the same rates they are arrested far more frequently. reality is that marijuana prohibition has for millions of black and Brown people been the gateway to arrest and incarcerate. Lives Those are concrete real harms that affect real people everyday continuing the status quo of prohibition is not just in action. It means turning your back on those harms and condemning hundreds of thousands every year to continuing that misery and depression. Yet in recent years, we've seen tremendous progress with with multiple States regulating marijuana for adult use, and the wonderful news is that so far, the evidence shows that regulation is producing a range of benefits from increased revenues. States to stronger protections for consumers. Meanwhile, it has not led to increased marijuana or the other supposed harms that the critics had warned about at the same time at the drug Policy Alliance. We've kept our eye on the ball of both ending the devastating harms of probation and to the extent possible beginning to repair them. That's why we've partnered with other National civil and human rights organizations to form the Marijuana Justice Coalition, which has worked to ensure that. Marijuana reform puts those who've been most harmed by Prohibition, front and Center. That's also why we've worked closely with leaders in the House, including Chairman Nadler Representative Lee and all the other. members here present today and many more and I'm delighted to stand with them today in support of the Moroccan, which is the most robust marijuana reform legislation introduced at the federal level to date. The bill includes key elements to allow States to move forward with marijuana regulation if they choose but also. It ensures that the community's most harmed by prohibition are not left behind the more act recognizes that marijuana reform is fundamentally a matter of Justice. I'm so pleased it's now coming up for markup and I encourage all members of Congress who supported. Thank you. Thank you very much and now Neil Franklin, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. so first of all thank you thank you thank you to our greatest leaders we will see a lot of discourage unfortunately but thank you very much to work it you all done in will continue to do anymore give my name is new friend and without made of environment stay police have given was we decades of my life to places in the state of law in the long first donation finished for many of you do not know is a collection of thousands of law enforcement full smoke country and that's please plastic Corrections officials, federal agents and more who are working on policy such as this working to move policies such as this forward to solve problems not just to make something look different but to solve problems within the criminal Justice environment today and we have close to 300 expert speakers who go out and work on these types of policies. So what does law enforcement generally say about this? This is a great opportunity to end the confusion between federal state and local laws because right now as long as it is illegal on the federal level. Unfortunately, most law enforcement folks will follow the lead of our federal government, even though they believe something different, even though the men and women who are out there in the streets every day want this to end, but unfortunately, because it is still illegal at the federal level and we still have the DEA behind it and we're still dealing with. Sharing our federal assets sharing system, which is about several forfeiture where States and local government get money from sharing these assets from civil forfeiture. You know those types of things are continue to be a problem, but let me let me say what is most important here. This will free up law enforcement resources to a great level because right now, we're still making over half a million marijuana possession arrest every year. Even with the progress we've seen at the state and local levels over half a million arrests, so you know what that does to someone you know what that does to their life and let me tell you why this is important for public safety because when people can't get jobs when they can't make it financially when they're when there is a problem, I gotta say this with economic. Equity They remain within the criminal environment because many of them see that is their only way to feed their families. This would do a lot for that. It will also do a lot to help repair police community relations. 500000 arrest just for marijuana. You know what it does to police community relations. I'm from Baltimore and I think many of you know what Baltimore is dealing with right now regarding unconstitutional policing marijuana. That marijuana arrest, here's a great opportunity to end the confusion between the federal state and local levels. So I thank you again for the work and I hope that others realize what this will do for public safety Coast to Coast in this country. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. are there any questions message who say you know? yes should be fun. Yes. it's been issue that we should deal with, but they're not willing to go as far as full legalization. They're just calling scheduling what's your message to them? Well? I suppose the message is twofold number one. There is no evidence whatsoever that would justify any kind of schedule in marijuana. it should not be. Why don't you not be in any schedule? There's no scientific evidence to justify that at all and just the fact that we made a mistake for the last about 70 years doesn't mean we should continue the mistake number two. What this bill does is to deepen and deschedule on the federal level States can if they wish continue to regulate it in in various ways and States will presumably do so some will do it at all. Some will do it somewhat and but the federal government should not be imposing its heavy hand There's no reason to do so and where we know the harms that federal that that that that this is not over by 70 - 580. Mister Chairman of marijuana moment here this village prefer to seven other committees women. Have you received assurances that jurisdiction we will be waved in other cases were carried conversations with that. I think I don't anticipate that to be a big problem. we are looking forward to moving this to the floor and the appropriate time. when we finished our done some more educational working on the boats are you confident it's going to come together Get floor time this this Congress. I certainly hope so. You made this Congress not by December 30 -first of this year, rather busy people of Getting into the marijuana business. The Respect Act was incorporated into the Moran and what again just for background. I believe it's probably about four percent of the licenses that have been granted go to right now, People of color and this is extremely important because in the respect Act now and the more active it gives a road map on how to achieve equity in the industry, and we know that this industry is a trillion dollar industry and jobs are gonna be created our being created and their business opportunity. That are being created but the structural issues as a relates to the financing, which Congressman Blum an hour and many others have had moved forward to address in the safe Banking Act and all of the financial issues, though impact people of color who have been marginalized and shut out from the African business aspects of of our country and what's required when you talk about equity financing when you're talking about access to loans to to underwrite some of the startups when you talk about the. The the amount of money that licenses required which which is quite frankly excessive and so the respect that kinda gives of a broad map on how to address many of the structural barriers that prevent people of color from entering into the industry and we don't wanna see another industry that is similar to others where you have only one or two percent people of color as as far as the jobs and the Concerned and we're trying to mitigate against that upfront cuz this is a new industry and we've learned from the past on the mistakes that we've made, which is resulted in many people follow me in shut out of the business and job creation aspects of of new new businesses. Yes. There's been some talk potentially of working us into something that's like the state's act. Republican support What is you're doing? well? My view is that that would be a mistake we are hopeful that we will be able to pass this legislation in this Congress we have some bipartisan support. you'll see that the Committee tomorrow. I mean I I hope and I think we'll get more bipartisan support and I don't think we should compromised beginning. maybe the end of we have to, but I don't think we're gonna have to. A Committee vote tomorrow Do you expect to see him vote? We'll get a vote and it will be not the only Democrats yes Banking Couple weeks ago, where. Fun Excited about teaching points it seems like you can very hard. Well, that's usually the case isn't it. California. I'm sorry, I'm sorry say again. No, no, no, we know, it's not just messaging and this is part of a long term fight. I should mention I hate to age myself, but in my first year in the state Assembly, which is 1970 - seven. We passed the bill to decriminalize marijuana in New York and was signed by the by the governor. Then I didn't think it would take this long to get to where we are now. but we will we will the logic is inexorable. They the the the energy and the political pressure from the various States is growing rapidly. the Senate is subject We'll accomplish this and I don't think we should done and I don't think we will have to greatly copy sometimes maybe in order to the fundamentals, which is that the federal government should not be prohibiting marijuana research or use or anything else that we should do and I think we will do the Senate will take it sometime within the Senate does. It wasn't the way he said. That was okay. I'll just tell you what I said on Twitter, which is I said not true. prohibition is a gateway to racist policy. Yeah. Thank you very much everybody.











