Senator Confirms ‘SAFE Plus’ Marijuana Banking Deal Includes Gun Rights And Expungements, Saying It ‘Must Pass’ In 2023
MJ moment

As congressional lawmakers lament the failure to get marijuana banking legislation attached to a large-scale spending bill, one senator is giving details about what bipartisan negotiations over the so-called SAFE Plus package entailed, including “important expungement and second amendment rights provisions.” While it has been previously reported that gun rights were included in the package in order to get buy-in from conservatives as lawmakers pushed to produce passable legislation during the lame duck session, the new comments from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) appear to be the first on-the-record confirmation from a lawmaker on the issue. Even though key legislators agreed on the framework of the cannabis reform deal, they couldn’t push past opposition from Republican leaders who refused to allow it to be included in large-scale legislation. But Merkley, a prime sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, says that “we’ve made so much progress on forging bipartisan consensus,” and he “won’t rest until we get it done.” We have a bipartisan agreement which includes tweaks to SAFE Banking and important expungement and second amendment rights provisions. — Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) December 21, 2022 The comments echo points that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made on Tuesday, in which he also blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) for tanking the marijuana reform as part of the omnibus appropriations legislation. McConnell’s opposition has also been cited as the reason the reform wasn’t included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) earlier this month. But Schumer’s remarks at a briefing on Tuesday didn’t reference specifics about what lawmakers were negotiations in terms of the much-anticipated SAFE Plus. While Politico first reported that gun rights would be a feature of the legislation, and sources have told Marijuana Moment the same over recent months,…

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