Amazon, the second largest personal employer within the U.S., is backing a Republican-led invoice to federally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana.
The corporate’s public coverage division mentioned on Tuesday that it’s “happy to endorse” the laws from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who filed the States Reform Act in November as a middle-ground various to extra scaled again GOP proposals and wide-ranging legalization payments which can be being championed by Democrats.
We’re happy to endorse @RepNancyMace‘s States Reform Act. Like so many on this nation, we imagine it’s time to reform the nation’s hashish coverage and Amazon is dedicated to serving to lead the trouble. https://t.co/g04Dn5KZq5
— Amazon Public Coverage (@amazon_policy) January 25, 2022
“Like so many on this nation, we imagine it’s time to reform the nation’s hashish coverage and Amazon is dedicated to serving to lead the trouble,” the corporate, which beforehand expressed support for a separate, Democratic-led legalization bill, mentioned.
Amazon has labored to adapt to altering marijuana insurance policies internally because it’s backed congressional reform, enacting an employment coverage change final 12 months to end drug testing for cannabis for most workers, for instance.
Months after making that change—and following the introduction of the States Reform Act—Mace met with Amazon and acquired the corporate’s endorsement, Forbes reported.
“They don’t wish to promote it,” the freshman congresswoman mentioned, including that Amazon is primarily fascinated by backing the reform for hiring functions as a substitute of as a solution to ultimately promote hashish. “It opens up the hiring pool by about 10 p.c.”
@amazon has endorsed my States Reform Act, a invoice that might finish the federal authorities’s 85-year prohibition on marijuana. https://t.co/XJdY2URQtC pic.twitter.com/MDRM8EVjnG
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) January 25, 2022
Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice chairman of public coverage, mentioned the invoice “affords complete reform that speaks to the emergence of a bipartisan consensus to finish the federal prohibition of hashish.”
Amazon’s drug testing determination was broadly celebrated by reform advocates and business stakeholders. Initially, the corporate solely talked about ending the coverage going ahead. However it later disclosed that the coverage change would even be retroactive, which means former staff and candidates who had been punished for testing constructive for THC will have their employment eligibility restored.
The rationale for the transfer away from marijuana testing was multifaceted, Amazon mentioned on the time. The rising state-level legalization motion has made it “troublesome to implement an equitable, constant, and nationwide pre-employment marijuana testing program,” information reveals that drug testing “disproportionately impacts folks of coloration and acts as a barrier to employment” and ending the requirement will widen the corporate’s applicant pool.
The GOP congresswoman’s invoice already has the help of the influential, Koch-backed conservative group People for Prosperity.
The measure would finish federal hashish prohibition whereas taking particular steps to make sure that companies in current state markets can proceed to function unencumbered by altering federal guidelines.
Mace’s laws has been characterised as an try and bridge a partisan divide on federal hashish coverage. It does that by incorporating sure fairness provisions reminiscent of expungements for folks with non-violent hashish convictions and imposing an excise tax, income from which might help group reinvestment, legislation enforcement and Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) actions.
Marijuana Second first reported on an earlier draft version of the bill in November, and it shortly grew to become obvious that business stakeholders see a possibility within the Republican-led effort.
The rationale for that response largely comes right down to the truth that there’s skepticism that Democratic-led legalization payments—together with the Marijuana Alternative, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act that Amazon has additionally endorsed—will be capable of go with out GOP buy-in. Whereas Democrats maintain majorities in each chambers, along with controlling the White Home, the margins for passage are slim.
The MORE Act did clear the House Judiciary Committee in September, and a earlier model handed the complete Home over the past Congress. Senate management is preparing to file a separate legalization proposal after unveiling a draft model in July.
Photograph courtesy of Max Pixel.
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