Congressional Cannabis Caucus Touts 2021 Wins, Lays Out 2022 Priorities

Co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus Earl Blumenauer and Barbara Lee authored a year-in-review memo, praising 2021 as “a transformative year for cannabis reform, in which five states—New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, and Connecticut—legalized adult use cannabis,” also noting that Alabama became the 37th state to legalize medical marijuana.

They cited polling by Gallup that showed 68% of Americans now support legalizing cannabis and praised the “wealth of policy ideas for ending cannabis prohibition on the federal level” circulating on Capitol Hill. While the lion’s share of cannabis progress this year was at the state level, Blumenauer and Lee noted one federal reform—cannabis researchers may now use commercially available products for their research; all testing had previously been done on material grown at the University of Mississippi that was widely criticized for bearing little resemblance to modern plants.

Looking ahead, they enumerated a long list of priorities for next year that include the MORE Act, the SAFE Banking Act, and the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. They also highlighted various consumer protections they hope to institute, including federal employee drug testing language, protecting state and tribe legal cannabis programs, and an array of proposals related to veterans’ access.—Danny Sullivan

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