Vice President Kamala Harris made waves by reportedly calling for the legalization of marijuana during a closed-door meeting with recipients of a presidential cannabis pardon.
Harris held a meeting earlier this month at the White House with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), rap artist Fat Joe and three recipients of a presidential pardon for federal-level convictions of simple marijuana possession.
Before the meeting began, Harris made a statement to reporters, calling for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reschedule cannabis quickly.
“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible,” said Harris. “And we need to have a resolution based on their findings and their assessment.”
Harris also called for state governments to pardon and expunge state-level cases of simple marijuana possession, highlighting Beshear’s efforts to pardon marijuana prisoners in Kentucky.
The vice president said the meeting was called to determine how the presidential pardons have affected recipients. While the press was not allowed to attend the meeting, one of the pardon recipients later told reporters that Harris said it was time to legalize marijuana.
Now that the election cycle has begun, the administration has been giving special attention to its position on cannabis policy.
AGs Call for Hemp Intoxicant Regulation
A coalition of 21 attorneys general is calling for lawmakers to regulate intoxicating products derived from legal hemp like Delta-8 THC.
The group sent a letter last week to members of the House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry calling for legislation that will amend the definition of hemp. The proposed changes would include language clarifying that there is no loophole for hemp-based intoxicants and would allow states to regulate the plant as they see fit.
When hemp was defined and legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill, advocates predicted that there would be negative legal ramifications for distinguishing between types of cannabis plants based on THC content. According to the law, “hemp” is defined as marijuana with less than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.
“Because of the ambiguity created by the 2018 Farm Bill, a massive gray market worth an estimated $28 billion has exploded, forcing cannabis-equivalent products into our economies regardless of states’ intentions to legalize cannabis use, and dangerously undermining regulations and consumer protections in states where adult-use legal cannabis programs are already in place,” wrote the attorneys general.
IRS Gives Weed Guidance
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued guidance for marijuana companies reporting large cash exchanges.
The memo addresses how weed businesses handle filling out Form 8300, which documents a cash payment of $10,000 or more. According to the memo, large cash transactions between marijuana companies will not automatically be deemed suspicious, and businesses can explicitly report cash transactions involving legal marijuana sales.
The memo notes that businesses don’t have to explicitly mention marijuana in the transaction if they don’t wish to, suggesting they describe it as “Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting” or “Other Farm Product Raw Material Merchant Wholesalers.”
The IRS also pointed out that cannabis businesses do not need to check a suspicious activity box located on the form simply because they work with weed.