| A trio of Senate Democrats unveiled a draft of their federal cannabis legalization bill a year ago, and after some delay, it’s finally here.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., officially filed the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) July 21, expanding the 163-page draft into a 296-page bill that would remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances; tax and regulate cannabis at the federal level; and grant states the power to keep or administer their own oversight programs.
The sweeping legislation also takes aim at social equity, providing provisions to help repair the harms and injustices associated with the enforcement of prohibition policies that have led to disproportionately targeting Black people and communities.
While the majority of Americans support comprehensive cannabis policy reform (a November Gallup Poll revealed that 68% of Americans support full legalization), it remains to be seen if this kind of proposal has the support it needs in Washington.
“I think the acts that are the most simple, straightforward, and can get bipartisan support are the ones that are most likely to pass, such as something like some form of the SAFE Banking Act,” Robert DiPisa, co-chair of Cole Schotz’s Cannabis Law Group, told Cannabis Business Times this week. “I think there’s a lot more in [the CAOA], and my concern is whenever there’s more, there’s always opportunity for someone to have an issue with certain aspects of it. … I think that could negatively affect the ability for this to actually get passed. At this point, the best likelihood of something to pass is something that’s very simple, very straightforward, and something that both parties can agree to.”
Stay tuned as we follow along with the CAOA’s progress this year.
-Melissa Schiller, Senior Digital Editor | 
