The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), and the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) are proposing new cannabis policy changes to the Fiscal Year 2023 spending bills. The updated Congress bill contains many new changes to the previous regulations, including protections for immigrants who use cannabis, providing the cannabis industry access to the banking system, provisions for hemp, and freeing up marijuana-related advertising. This was reported by the cannabis news outlet Marijuana Moment.
The bill reads, “No Federal funds may be used by the Department of Homeland Security to deny any benefit application for admission, or protection available to an individual under the Immigration and Nationality Act on the sole basis of any event, conduct, finding, admission, history of a substance use disorder, arrest, or juvenile adjudication related to cannabis possession, consumption, or use, or to a conviction solely based on such possession, consumption, or use.”
In a memo published in 2019 by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), employment in a legal marijuana market could affect a person’s immigration status. However, it seems immigrants working in the commercial marijuana market remain legally unprotected.
Concerning cannabis advertisement, a new section was included in the FSGG bills. This section stated that the Federal Communications Commission (FEC) cannot use federal funds to penalize T.V. or radio broadcasters for airing cannabis advertisements in jurisdictions where cannabis-related products are legalized.
The updated bill also included language to safeguard financial institutions that work with state-legal marijuana or hemp businesses. The proposal reads, “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to penalize a financial institution solely because the financial institutions provide financial services to an entity that is a manufacturer, a producer, or a person that participates in any business or organized activity that involves handling hemp, hemp-derived cannabidiol products, other hemp-derived cannabinoid products, marijuana, marijuana products, or marijuana proceeds, and engage in such activity pursuant to a law established by a state, political subdivision of a state, or Indian Tribe.”
Furthermore, the bill that allocates funding to USDA said that the department cannot use federal money to interfere in the processing, transportation or sale of hemp since it has been federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.
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