On May 4, 2017, the House Financial Services Committee narrowly, by a vote of 34-26, passed the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017, which now moves to the full House. Most of the bill relates to rollbacks of Dodd-Frank provisions that are better covered by those...
It's looking good. The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment to the last several years of federal budget bills has prevented the federal government from using its money to prevent the implementation of state medical cannabis laws since 2014. However, the amendment must be renewed each year with the...
Believe it or not the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was signed into law on April 5, 2012. A great example of how the legislators, working with an administrative agency, can bring meaningful and substantive positive change. Enacted in the heat of a Congressional...
Republican Congressman Tom Garrett this week introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana and remove it from the list of controlled substances as a "Schedule I drug." The bill is called the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017.” With Garrett as sponsor is Democrat Rep....
According to this piece in the Fresh Toast, America's four largest banks have been actively opening accounts for medical marijuana dispensaries. The article mentions a study done by MRB Monitor, which found that in Massachusetts alone, more than a third of those applying to get...
The old gray lady, The New York Times, wrote an editorial last week encouraging the Trump Administration to significantly expand the opportunity for US researchers to grow and study cannabis. It reminded me a bit of the 2013 Sanjay Gupta MD special on cannabis on CNN....
As expected, in one of his final acts in office a few weeks ago, Pres. Obama signed the SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016 into law. This bill had pretty wide bipartisan support in Congress. Like most good ideas, it's pretty simple. It sets...
In a major positive step for the cannabis industry, the New York Stock Exchange last week listed a new real estate investment trust called Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR), the first cannabis company to be listed on a US national exchange. The company plans to invest...
According to the Associated Press and others, the process of filling the two open SEC Commissioner positions is being held up primarily because of the nominees' views on whether public companies should disclose their political spending. Key Senators have asked both Lisa Fairfax, the nominee...