Did you hear the one about the 3 democrats who filed a marijuana legalization bill in the crooked republican senate?

After reading the attributions to the new Cannabis Administration Opportunity Act (CAOA) and checking in with our DC sources, I wish we could say we’re more opportunistic about passing the new Cannabis Legalization Act in the Senate.

The new 296-page bill mimics the early 163-page flop that Senator Shumer and Booker introduced many months ago. If you don’t remember or care that far back due to a smoky haze, we’re talking huge federal taxes, mindless amounts of cannabis for personal use, non-support of the Safe Banking Act, and a whole lot of head-scratching marijuana ideas and promises. You can read about it here.

The new bill improves things like cannabis workers’ rights, a legal standard for disabled driving, access to banks, and a new federal marijuana license for shipping cannabis from state to state. Yes, this is included to allow legal states to ship product to other legal states and non-legal states to allow the cannabis to pass, but it may not be distributed in those states.

Think wholesale prices and retail prices are bottoming out now? Check below for when mass-producing states can ship their excess inventory to heavily regulated states nationwide. Prices will fall but the good news is that we will get an efficient market for the legal and illegal markets. To make things more exciting for law enforcement, the legal THC limit for hemp would also be raised from 0.3% to 0.7%. How do you like the apples, officer? Now try to test the crop you just got me on in your legal or non-legal state.

Before the industry gets too excited about a federal cannabis legalization bill that’s now in the Senate rather than just the House of Representatives, let’s take a look at five bad facts.

First, we will have cannabis legalization when Senator Mitch McConnel says we will have federal legalization. At present, he has not approved this bill.

Second, do you think the Republicans will allow the three Democrats to introduce and pass a very popular bill with voters in the Republican-controlled Senate? So can the Democrats take a victory lap for legalizing weed in the Republican end zone? Big chance! Better chances of Rep. Nancy Mace’s bill resonating with Mitch and his group of 8 than a Democratic Senate leadership bill. Let’s not forget how Senator McConnel has publicly mocked Democrats for trying to pass the Safe Banking Act even in a variety of amendments to current defense and China-based legislation.

Third, thanks to Senator Booker, this version of the CAOA has a good measure of social justice, economic empowerment, and federal taxes going to the communities hardest hit by the War on Drugs. This is a non-starter with most Republicans, the new federal taxes, and the social justice portions of the bill.

Do you think we’re a bunch of curmudgeons on federal legalization again? Here is Marijuana Moment’s take on the passage of the bill:

While the sponsors have spent months discussing the proposal with offices across the aisle, there is still some skepticism about the prospects of hitting the 60-vote threshold needed to get the measure through the Senate bring to.

Republican senators are widely expected to oppose a measure to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), let alone a measure that would also impose a federal tax on the sale of marijuana and progressive social welfare provisions Justice, such as automatic expungements for previous cannabis convictions.

Nor is there a guarantee that all Democratic members of the Senate will support the bill. Several members were either noncommittal or signaled they would oppose it based on the original draft language. Democrats have a slim majority in the chamber, so any dissent within the faction could hurt the chances of passing the bill.

Fourth, elections are coming up in November and the Democrats are losing seats. We’re also on a wave of conservative thinking sweeping America about gun laws, abortion, maybe gay marriage next, and legalizing weed wouldn’t be high on the list of things to do by conservative Americans of power are to be done now.

Fifth, President Biden is not a drug fanatic, a longtime supporter of the “War on Drugs,” and when a family member is dying from drugs, he’s just not a weed guy. While we made a pledge on the campaign tour to release inmates with minor cannabis offenses, three years later we are still waiting for that pledge to be fulfilled. His office has said an announcement is coming soon, but he doesn’t appear to be making cannabis legalization a priority, even though he’s a Democrat and his vice president sponsored one of the cannabis legalization bills.

If the House goes Republican in the fall, then Rep. Mace’s bill could be her best bet for legalization since she’s a Republican in the House, and then Republicans could get full credit for legalizing weed their way and get voter approval.

Time will tell and elections will come and go, but weed will be legalized when Mitch McConnell says so.

MORE ABOUT SENATOR SCHUMER’S LEGALIZATION ACT, READ THIS…

THE FIRST CANNABIS ADMINSTRATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT FLOPS!