Maryland Governor Stresses Need To Advocate For ‘Sane’ Federal Marijuana Policy, Including Banking Reform

The governor of Maryland says that as the state works to build upon its marijuana legalization law, he will continue to “advocate for a sane and a standard federal policy,” including banking reform so that small cannabis businesses have access to capital.

In an Instagram Live conversation with Hope Wiseman, founder of the marijuana retailer Mary and Main, Gov. Wes Moore (D) said on Wednesday that while he’s committed to ensuring that social equity is integral to Maryland’s cannabis market, and his recent mass pardon for past marijuana and paraphernalia convictions is part of that, it remains critical that federal reform advances.

“What we’re doing state of Maryland is revolutionary,” he said. But “there are parts of this country that are behind us and on federal law.”

“So one thing that I know that we will continue to do—and I know a lot of our partners will continue to do—we’re going to continue advocating for changes within the federal system,” Moore said, adding that the Biden administration has made a “major move” by proposing to reschedule cannabis because it made “absolutely no sense” to classify it in the same category as heroin.

“There is movement, and there’s momentum. That’s happening,” he said. “But we have to make sure we’re continuing to advocate for a sane and a standard federal policy in the way that we’re addressing these issues.”

Wiseman also brought up the fact that while moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) would allow state-licensed cannabis businesses to take federal tax deductions, there’s still a need to address the lack of banking access for the industry, a situation that makes it “a difficult place to navigate.”

Moore said that banking is “a component that I think sometimes people miss when it comes access, and why it’s so difficult to get access to capital to entrepreneurs when you have different rules between different states and the feds.”

“There’s a whole lot that can be done on the state side. There’s a whole lot that our individual states can do,” he said. “But one of the really important things that has to be done with all of us on the state side as well is you have to make sure that the federal conversation is getting pushed as well.”

The governor has been discussing his vision for cannabis reform frequently in recent weeks, as he promotes his recent mass pardon forgiving more than 175,000 marijuana and paraphernalia convictions.

That clemency was about more than addressing the public policy consequences of criminalization,” Moore said in an earlier interview. As someone who was exposed to the criminal legal system at an early age, and having been a medical cannabis patient himself, he said there’s an important personal psychological impact of attaining that relief.

Last month, Moore and the president of the NAACP also promoted the state’s historic mass marijuana pardon, which they said would unlock the economic potential of people targeted by criminalization. But the governor also stressed the need to get the word out about next steps for the majority of pardon recipients whose records weren’t automatically expunged by his clemency move.

Moore has also gained praise from the White House and other officials such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) for his cannabis clemency move.

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Meanwhile, since Maryland’s adult-use cannabis market launched in July of last year, licensed retailers have sold more than $1.1 billion worth of legal marijuana products, including more than $700 million to adult consumers and $400 million in medical marijuana, the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) said last month.

During the first quarter of 2024, meanwhile, the state collected nearly $15 million in marijuana sales tax revenue—an increase of less than 0.7 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Aside from cannabis, the governor in May also signed a pair of bills into law to establish a psychedelics task force that will study legal access to substances like psilocybin and DMT.

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