The Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement (HOPE) Act, sponsored by Reps. David Joyce (R-OH) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), allocates $20 million in federal funds over the course of ten years to provide grants to state and local governments to help expedite the process of providing relief for those with low-level marijuana convictions.
The Small Business Tax Equity Act provides an exemption for state-licensed cannabis businesses from federal tax code 280E, which prevents anyone engaged in the trade of certain federally prohibited substances from deducting business expenses.
“Members of the DC City government continue to prioritize policies that both advance and protect the freedoms of responsible cannabis consumers. These policies include providing patients with convenient access to regulated medical cannabis products, prohibiting certain employers from discriminating against those who use cannabis while off the job, and providing legal relief to those with past, low-level marijuana convictions.”
“Legalizing cannabis possession, eliminating criminal penalties for all ages, and creating a regulated market are huge leaps forward for Delaware,” said Laura Sharer, Executive Director of Delaware NORML. “Provisions afforded from the Justice Reinvestment Fund will begin the process of reversing decades of discriminatory, harmful, and fundamentally unfair cannabis laws by putting equity back into our communities.”
City lawmakers have provided final approval to a pair of bills that seek to significantly reform marijuana laws in the District of Columbia. But both bills still must undergo a 30-day Congressional review prior to becoming law.
“Voters and lawmakers took significant steps this year to repeal marijuana prohibition laws and to provide relief to those tens millions of Americans who have suffered as a result of them,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said.
“Urine tests are a highly offensive invasion of workers’ personal bodily privacy,” said Dale Gieringer, the Director of California NORML — which had lobbied for several years in favor of the bill. “They are too frequently abused to discriminate against unpopular workers and minorities. Workers should have the same right to use cannabis as to use other legal substances off the job.”
State lawmakers have advanced several priority bills to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk and a few more remain pending but are up against a tight timeline. The legislative session in California ends on August 31st. Any bills not transmitted to the Governor will die after that date. (Once advanced to the Governor, he has 30 days to act on the bills.)