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The National Cannabis Roundtable (NCR) and US Cannabis Council (USCC) are combining the two advocacy organizations that represent leading multistate and single-state cannabis operators, retailers, ancillary businesses and advocacy organizations on Capitol Hill.
The National Cannabis Roundtable is an alliance of cannabis companies and was created in 2019. It has worked on legalization efforts with a focus on banking access and taxation. The Cannabis Council was a combination of businesses, organizations and individuals. It was established in February 2021 and while it focused on legalization, it also promoted social equity causes.
The new organization will be known as the US Cannabis Roundtable and will be led by Cresco Labs (OTC: CRLBF) CEO Charlie Bachtell. The group will represent operators across 38 states and a substantial amount of the 13,000 retail locations plus nearly 450,000 full-time employees working in the state-licensed cannabis industry.
“This is a pivotal time for the regulated cannabis industry with a newly elected Congress and an incoming president who has publicly supported and pledged to advance commonsense cannabis reform,” said Bachtell, chairperson of both NCR and USCC. “As the chairman of both groups, I have seen first-hand the incredible talent of each organization and know that the combined group will be the unified authority advocating on behalf of the legal cannabis industry and a resource on all things cannabis for members of the Trump administration and Congress.”
As of Jan. 16, NCR and USCC will officially coordinate all political activities, lobbying efforts and public-facing communications. The group said in a statement that it will deploy an unprecedented advocacy team including former influential members of Congress, and a former Trump senior adviser, among others.
According to the statement, the priorities of the organization and its advocates focus on commonsense reform initiatives and will include:
Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III;
Passing states’ rights legislation that allows each state to make its own decision on cannabis policy;
Enacting cannabis banking legislation (the SAFE/SAFER Banking Act); and
Ending the un-American scenario that allows foreign cannabis companies to list on the NASDAQ and NYSE while prohibiting state-licensed U.S. cannabis companies from doing the same.
“Cannabis is a big issue and it’s not going to be solved with a magic wand,” said Gretchen Gailey, President of Project Champion. “This has always been a political fight and to win those, you need money and resources. Now we need to take that fight together to the U.S. Senate where the true cannabis blockade has always been.”
“}]] [[{“value”:”The newly created U.S. Cannabis Roundtable will coordinate all political activities, lobbying efforts and public-facing communications.
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