The Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce (GACC) released the U.S. cannabis industry’s first comprehensive model federal legislation to legalize interstate and international medical and adult-use cannabis in the United States.

This first-of-its-kind model bill ends cannabis prohibition, and creates an all-encompassing regulatory framework with an eye towards harmonizing the interests of patients, industry, and the communities most affected by the failure of cannabis prohibition. It overhauls the tangle of federal laws and regulations governing cannabis and replaces the archaic policy of cannabis prohibition with common-sense reforms for treating cannabis as an agricultural, medical, and consumer good where states decide to do so; it also respects state primacy on the decision to legalize cannabis within its borders. The model statute implements what sixty-six percent of American already favor, according to an October 2018 poll by Gallup: legalizing cannabis.

GACC’s model policies create a two-track framework for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to safely control the cultivation, manufacture, and distribution of cannabis products in and between states that have legalized cannabis, without crippling the vibrant markets that already exist.

Economists project that the U.S. cannabis market will be worth over $66 billion by 2025, but without a smart and welcoming trade policy, Americans will not see the benefits of ending prohibition. In states where it has been legalized, it has produced tax revenues in the billions. GACC’s model bill first legalizes the transport of cannabis and cannabis-derivatives across state lines among states that have legalized cannabis, and implements federal regulation for the import and export of cannabis in global trade.

This governing architecture is designed to provide patients with safe access to medicine, while streamlining the many costly and confusing impediments that prevent cannabis businesses from investing in the United States. Furthermore, GACC’s model legislation includes provisions to reinvest in communities harmed by cannabis prohibition, retrain law enforcement for a post-prohibition world, and assist in expungement of criminal records for non-violent cannabis offenders.

GACC Executive Director Randal John Meyer noted that “It is crucial for federal lawmakers to understand the nature of the modern cannabis market as federal prohibition ends. Without sensible policy to regulate cannabis—like that contained in our model legislation—piecemeal fixes are more likely to result in unforeseen regulatory omnishambles that will perpetuate confusion, harm and inefficiencies, undermining or destroying huge parts of the cannabis market. The problems with federal cannabis law span vast areas of concern—from criminal law to pesticide use. Half-measures simply will not do for patients, adult consumers, or the 200,000-plus employees of a multi-billion dollar U.S. industry.”

GACC Vice President Jason Beck added, “In the national conversation around cannabis legalization, it is important for cannabis businesses to have a seat at the table to inform congress of these pressing issues.”

GACC’s Model U.S. Federal Legislation and section-by-section analysis is available on its Policy Center.

SOURCE The Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce