California lawmakers have done pretty much everything in their power to create a system for legal marijuana sales and overall normalization of cannabis in the Golden State. Now, with recreational sales starting in a matter of months, those same legislators are trying to make those same changes in Washington D.C.
According to Forbes, California’s State Senate and Assembly passed a joint resolution to request that president Trump and the federal government re-schedule cannabis and create a path for medical research into the state-approved plant.
"The Legislature urges the Congress of the United States to pass a law to reschedule marijuana or cannabis and its derivatives from a Schedule I drug to an alternative schedule, therefore allowing the legal research and development of marijuana or cannabis for medical use," the resolution reads.
By keeping cannabis under the Schedule I umbrella, the federal government continues to ascribe absolutely zero medical value to the plant, despite contrary evidence presented by researchers in legal weed states and contention from the U.S. Senate’s own Appropriations Committee.
In addition to the request for rescheduling, California lawmakers are also calling for the federal government to respect state laws and allow for "the legal commerce of marijuana or cannabis so that businesses dealing with marijuana or cannabis can use traditional banks or financial institutions for their banking needs, which would result in providing a legal vehicle for those businesses to pay their taxes."
Governor’s approval isn’t needed for joint resolutions in California, and with the re-scheduling request passing through California’s State Senate and Assembly with landslide votes of 34-2 and 60-10 respectively, it will now be sent to President Trump, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in addition to California’s two U.S. Senators and 53 Congresspeople.
