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[Music] you're right how about we get started with our federal policy update this morning good morning everyone welcome to another NCI educational webinar I'm Bethany Moore and CIA's Communications Manager at NCI a and I'll be the moderator today in this presentation we'll cover the latest in federal policy news with NCIS director of public policy Andrew Klein and NCIS deputy director of government relations Michele Rutter Freiberg NCI is director of public policy Andrew Klein will present an update on the federal cannabis policy issues taken up by MCAS policy counsel including vaping illnesses highlights of the findings from the illicit markets summit and comments to be submitted to the NEA sorry DEA and ni da we'll also explore the kovat 19 responses across the United States Michele Rutter Freiberg NCI A's deputy director of government relations will share information about how to stay politically active on behalf of cannabis policy reform while still practicing physical distancing during the kovat 19 pandemic we'll explore the impact that kovat 19 is having on small cannabis businesses plus an update on action and movement we've seen in Congress including a recent letter sent regarding Small Business Administration loans for cannabis businesses in case you couldn't hear the presentations at NCI is cannabis caucus event series due to postponements you can get those insights now and what's happening in Congress reminder again for our Facebook audience please leave any questions in the comments and we'll see them if you're on Twitter tweet those comments and questions to NCI 8 org for those of you tuning in via zoom you can use that chat feature at the bottom to ask a question for Andrew or Michelle so thanks to you both for taking time to join me and our viewers today so we can get up to date on what's happening in our industry thanks for having us Bethany great to be here thanks Bethany good morning everyone great good morning all right so let's get started first things first Andrew let's start by talking about the kovat 19 responses across the various states in the US so you know it goes without saying that this is a rough time for our country and for the world and while we deal with the health consequences of the coronavirus there are also economic consequences as well opening day was supposed to be yesterday postponed indefinitely airplanes are sitting on tarmacs hotels are empty casinos are closed or restaurants or bars people are unemployed industries full industries are at risk but cannabis is an outlier all states that have a medical cannabis broker that have cannabis programs at all have made cannabis available to consumers in some way or another medicinal is open delivery is permitted parking lot sales are permitted the industry is finding a way while we see sales down in other industries according to Politico sales were up in cannabis 120 percent this week stock prices are way up in cannabis Aurora is a 19 percent down most everywhere else the espys down 3% today employment is up in cannabis and way down across other sectors the industry is up and while the federal government looks to offer bailouts for other industries the Candice cannabis industry stays strong on its own in the states once again you know Colorado is leading governor Poulos and ANC designated cannabis as essential right at the beginning the governor's stay-at-home order exempts medical cannabis dispensaries and provides for adult sales a curbside but it's not just Colorado that's innovating almost all states with cannabis programs have deemed cannabis essential and the tides are turning in our favor at the state level if not federal level let's just take a quick look at a few of the innovators Governor Ned Lamont and Connecticut allowing doctors to issue medical cannabis recommendations via telemedicine governor jay Inslee in Washington is allowing the deferment of taxes and waiving of penalties for marijuana businesses and the michigan governor allowed people to purchase marijuana using expired driver's licenses as the industry accelerates we're also seeing some businesses having some challenges though as well one of our closest friends in the industry Berkeley patients group was hit hard by the mayor of Berkeley who is now only allowing delivery Berkeley patients group has been in business for 20 years they've been serving medical patients for that long but they don't dilute to do deliveries so they need our help right now please reach out and offer your support we also need to remember that there are people sitting in prison at risk of coronavirus according to the last prisoner project there are upwards of 40,000 marijuana related prisoners who are at risk you can jump on their website wwww last prisoner project work and they have a template there for you to send a note to your governor and they identify the actions we should be taking we need to get these prisoners out of prison thank you so much for that Andrew appreciate that update so Michelle what actions are the NCI a government relations team right in DC they're taking on Capitol Hill right now to try and help small cannabis businesses during this difficult time what are you seeing there and how can we as an industry stay engaged through all this sure so you know I think it's so important I'm gonna tackle the second question first I think you know it's so important to remain politically engaged during this time and I know that that might not seem at the forefront of everyone's mind as as all this goes on but it is an election year and it's important that we stay mindful of that as Julie because as an industry and as a country the people in empower you know make the decisions about things like coronavirus and funding and loans and so it's incredibly important not to forget that that the political process still goes on and so there's a couple of different ways that people can continue doing that from the comfort of their own home all these social distance you know some of the easiest things and the the first things that come to mind for people to do are to either call or write your legislators both of those obviously you can do from from anywhere you know and it's really important to continue doing that whether you're gonna talk about cannabis that or your business and the issues that you're facing or whether it's something else you know these tips apply across the board regardless of what it is you're talking to them about and so again I would encourage people to call your legislators you can email them we have a great template letter on our website that people can access if they're interested in sending a template letter to their state officials I would implore people maybe a pro tip if you will would be to get in touch with offices district offices you know Washington DC has sort of hit pause and not only that but everybody thinks oh I should contact the DC office and so people sometimes forget that there are people in their district offices locally who are also working for members of Congress and they're a lot less inundated sometimes although everybody is incredibly busy right now of course with everything that's going on but that can be a good tip sometimes to help you get a response in addition to those two things you know it's such an important time to stay informed you know sometimes the news can feel overwhelming and so you know maybe staying informed isn't necessarily watching the 24 hour coverage of coronavirus on on cable news but you know there's other ways to consume information right so read a book get your mind off of things first off but you know pick up your favorite history or book about a politician or something like that or about a movement that you care about like the civil rights movement or anything like that that you believe that you know a gets your mind off of things and be can also give you great ideas how to mobilize once this is behind us other ways to consume media obviously podcasts you can listen to things if reading isn't your cup of tea I obviously encourage people to listen to NCIA today which is a great podcast that Bethenny hosts that is actually become incredibly popular and so kudos to you for that Bethenny keeping everybody informed on what's going on across various sects of the industry and then I think another really great way to stay involved right now is by getting involved in campaigns and I know that can seem a little counterintuitive to people as we're staying home and social distancing like how can I get involved in a campaign well that's that's the beauty of technology you know you can go online whether you want to volunteer your time for a specific candidate or a specific party maybe it's at the federal level maybe it's at the state or local level you know wherever you think need your attention or you feel passionately about but you know getting involved at the campaign is a great way to still remain engaged with people like you know we're all staying home and kind of craving that human interaction we're doing webinars we're having virtual happy hours you know a campaign can be a great way to get to just make some calls talk to people talk to them about things you care about that you believe make a difference I think that right now that's really really inspiring and it's important to remember that we have control over those things and power over those things and lastly I think just make sure you're staying up-to-date on social media again like you know you don't maybe you're not reading the newspaper every day but followed your local member of Congress or local officials or your Senators on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or on all of them because so many candidates are doing Facebook lives and Instagram town halls and that can be a really really great way to still participate and actually be able to ask questions and and have a conversation while we're still all mostly what working from home so I think those are some of the ways that we can stay involved but to pivot back to your your first question about you know what are we doing here in DC it's obviously been an incredibly you know interesting time for all of us and and Congress's first business of order during this was obviously working on some of the couple economic packages that they passed we know that the stimulus bill is likely to pass the House of Representatives today and go to the President's desk and so while those discussions were going on however we were still having conversations with offices just about how we can ensure that we're providing relief to cannabis businesses in that vein on March 12th the Small Business Administration set aside about two million dollars for small businesses for all different kinds of loans 7a loans micro loans disaster relief loans and unfortunately because cannabis is still a Schedule one substance and it's not recognized by the federal government canvass businesses are not eligible for that for those funds and so we alongside some of our industry partners who were so lucky to work with the Global Alliance for cannabis commerce the minority cannabis Business Association cannabis trade federation the National cannabis roundtable and ourselves all sent a letter to congressional leadership imploring them that cannabis businesses are eligible for those funds if they could include language while that language did not get included yet and in any of the packages we've seen so far there is already talk about another phase four package that would likely be going forward sometime and you know the coming months that's kind of yet to be seen and what we want to do with that is again continue to talk to our offices who our friends and our champions about small businesses about the state banking act and and you know we we continue to talk with them we are also working on other letters to governor's and state officials again with that coalition to make sure that the industry is all rowing in the same direction you know it's so important to be unified at this time and so that is our our main priority is making sure that we are all rowing in the same direction to get what we need them but the good news is there's also other avenues to try and do this and that's what we're exploring now as well many people who've been involved in the cannabis industry for a long time are aware that the appropriations process is a way by which we've been able to get some some action out federal government with essentially it's mostly been tying their hands from from enforcement primarily in medical cannabis states but there are other ways that we can utilize the appropriations process for instance Senator Jackie Rosen a great cannabis champion out of the state of Nevada just sent a Dear Colleague letter around to her colleagues in the Senate imploring them to sign on to a letter that is asking the Appropriations Committee in the Senate to include language in the appropriations bills that would prohibit the Small Business Administration from denying those certain loan applications to canvass businesses so there's a couple different avenues although it seems like things have hit pause you know we're lucky again to live in the digital era we are still in touch with all of our our champions and friends whether it's on the phone or via email and I just want everybody to know that the people on the offices that we work with the most have been very dialed in on this they've been asking what are you hearing what are your businesses experiencing and so I would really implore anybody if you have any personal stories about what's been going on with you or your business in the age of coronavirus you know we've heard some stories of people because they can only do curbside you know sales are passing cash back and forth in their parking lots obviously it's incredibly unsafe I related that to some offices who are very concerned so if you have any stories like that feel free to drop us a line put it in the chat box please comment on Facebook there's a multitude of ways to get in touch with us private message us if that makes you feel more comfortable but I am actively looking for some of those stories to continue telling our friends on the hill so that they understand that the situation is serious and dire for cannabis businesses well thank you for that Michelle sounds like some great efforts and I hope some of our director plant audience members will send some of those stories to Michelle they're very hopeful so as far as what's happening on the hill what the house in the Senate are doing what's moving and shaking or stalling and breaking does it work there on Capitol Hill Michelle sure so like I mentioned I mean the the big effort for the last couple weeks has been about this phase three stimulus bill or the cares act as it's been called now that again that's looking like it's going to be passed by the House today and go on to to the President's desk to be turned into law we are going to now pivot and take some time to do some outreach to offices again to talk about that phase four bill and again the appropriations process to see what we can do there the appropriations process usually shakes out typically in in early summer about May June sometimes going into July lately since Congress sometimes it's a little late on the appropriations process but I think that's all a little bit in flux right now can considering everyone's schedules and and going into recess and and we don't really know how that's going to shake out but regardless the talk now is about what's gonna be in that phase for Bill and rather than having one week to try to lobby offices and mobilize our members and other allies of ours and coalition members we're gonna have a couple weeks and that makes a big difference again in just strategy and figuring out where is it in for us and so again I think there's a couple avenues that we're exploring obviously the Small Business Administration and the Small Business Committee working with them is is probably priority number one in addition to that we're also exploring other avenues by which we might be able to help in the face for Bill and that includes you know maybe having some language that talks about businesses that have been deemed essential in states right and we know that cannabis businesses in many
laces not all at least not all adult you States have been deemed essential but you know maybe we have an avenue there to work work with that and then also another thing I just want to mention is that you know these cannabis businesses are our Elledge they are under the family first act are going to be forced to not force to but you know will be will have to provide things like unemployment insurance and paid family and sick leave and although cannabis businesses are not eligible for any of those loans or the funding that other businesses and other industries are getting they are held to those unemployment mandates and and family leave mandate so there's obviously a bit of the the right hand and the left hand not talking here and so our job at NCI a and with our other coalition members is to sort of bridge that gap again and make sure that we can can help out wherever we wherever possible and lastly is just you know we're also seeing what other avenues we can explore for things like the safe banking Act we haven't forgotten about that you know if there's a possibility to attach that to something like a phase four bill we might be exploring those options but again our time now is talking with all of our allies and champions on the hill and making sure that again they've heard those stories they understand the need and then again strategizing for what's the best way forward for us great really appreciate that update Michele just a reminder for our Facebook audience please leave any questions you may have in the comments and we will see them we'll have a Q&A session toward the end here if you're on Twitter you can also tweet your comments and questions at NCI a org and finally for those of you tuning in here on zoom' you can use that chat feature button right at the bottom there to ask a question for Andrew or Michelle and we'll get to those toward the end so moving right along Andrew let's shift over to some of the broader issues going on behind the scenes with NCAA's Policy Council what has the group been working on recently and what's coming down the pipeline that NCIA members can expect to look out for yeah thanks Bethany first I just want to say you know NCIA and the cannabis industry is so lucky to have Michelle and DC looking out for us so thank you for all you do Michelle and DC for us you know one of the bills that I want to just comment on is the more Act I like the more Act it's addi scheduling bill it's got social equity provisions it's a great thing but it's not perfect it needs a regulatory plan and it does in passing sort of comment that a regulatory plan should look more like tobacco than alcohol and we disagree with that we do have our own reg taury plan it's on our website the cannabis industry org the Policy Council put that out last October so please please check it out I do wanted to say a little bit about the importance of DS scheduling as it relates to more because from my perspective this is the most important thing that the cannabis industry can be doing you know what we're seeing across the states is that the era of prohibition is crumbling 90% of the population favors medicinal marijuana 33 states have enacted medicinal programs the FDA has proved multiple medicinal marijuana drugs Congress has protected medicinal marijuana for seven years now and Congress recently discovered hemp but canvas is still a Schedule one drug like heroin and LSD it is so absurd like every time I say this out loud I just can't even believe it meth is a schedule 2 drug so according to the US government cannabis has no medicinal value and is highly addictive both are completely fundamentally irreconcilable with reality one blatant example of that is that the Department of Health and Human Services applied for and obtained a federal patent in 2003 on the medicinal use of marijuana and as I said before the FDA has approved medicines and the medicine is legal in 33 states we know it is just fundamentally not true it should not be a Schedule one drug and if we de schedule we fix almost everything we fix to a te we'd fix banking we we move from the DEA Zathura T to the FDA's authority or to TT B's Authority we have a pathway to social equity reform we facilitate research and there's a public safety imperative because we start regulating and testing products at the national level as most of you probably already know NCI a has a policy council it's a group right now about 35 entrepreneurs doctors lawyers scientists and experts in cannabis policy and together we decide on what we believe in the most important issues facing the cannabis industry at the time and we write white papers about those issues we build advocacy campaigns around them and we do events so you know as the VAP crisis started we form a task force and we wrote some op eds we read some blogs and ultimately we're writing a white paper s you can wrote a white paper which again you can find on our website if you click on policy and Policy Council you can see the whole library of all the papers that we've written and after writing that paper and we realized that the illicit market was the main culprit and so we planned an illicit market summit let me just tell you a little bit about the illicit market because it's just not working for anybody the illicit market is can put in consumers at risk by offering untested unregulated and dangerous products this includes vape cartridges that people are making in their garage filled with additives that aren't intended for innovation pop-up dispensaries are selling illicit products unregulated products untested products to unwitting consumers who can't tell the difference between a real dispensary and a pocket dispensary this is mostly happening in Los Angeles and then people are making counterfeit packaging ready to fill with fake lab results and batch numbers and bar codes it's just disgraceful what's happening out there and these illicit market operators opposing a threat to the legal cannabis industry because you've got these entrepreneurs who are spending millions of dollars on licenses hundreds of thousands of dollars on compliance and then they're competing against unregulated untested untaxed illicit products and law enforcement has no idea what to do so we need to make certain that reliable and safe products are being sold in the regulated market and you know we've talked a lot about the corona virus here today but you know trust in the supply chain is key here we need to make people believe that the laboratory testing that's being done is accurate that there's traceability so if we need to do a recall we can do that if we've learned anything from this disease it's the in the supply chain in cannabis is essential and so we held an illicit market summit on February 19th in Boston we had 68 people sitting at a table for an entire day from 8:00 in the morning till 5:30 with only lunch break we had a federal state local law enforcement at companies we had social equity experts and we had multi-state operators canvass companies in the room and you know out of it we we learned some key takeaways and if you if you get on our website again you can see those key takeaways and a blog that we published most recently I'll mention just a couple of them we need to we need to help law enforcement find alternatives to arrest and incarceration we mean the industry to find a pathway for illicit market operators to enter the legal market we need to find a forum for collaboration with law enforcement so we're not scrambling when a crisis happens to communicate with law enforcement and we need to be speaking with one voice the industry needs to be saying the same thing and that all that is really important you know we're going to be issuing a report soon on the illicit market so keep your eye out on that we had planned a subsequent law enforcement summit in June at our next trade show in San Francisco but because of the coronavirus that trade show has been postponed until the end of September beginning of October so we hope to play on that event during that trade show so what's next for the policy Council we are working on a few white papers right now intellectual property white paper which i think is gonna be super interesting it's how do you protect your trademark how do you apply for a federal patent in cannabis how do you protect designations of origin so much like champagne is is protected or Bordeaux is protected in France we want to protect you know the farmers and humble who are growing the best cannabis in the country right so how do we do that we're doing a paper on interstate commerce you know we believe that the best cannabis that's being grown in California Oregon should be able to be sold in places where it's much more costly to grow cannabis because you have to grow it indoors environmental sustainability we're working on a paper you know we should be a leader in in water conservation and electricity conservation we shouldn't be you know leveraging double packaging for instance we should be leader and so on Earth Day we're going to be releasing a summary executive summary of that paper and we'll be doing a webinar on environmental sustainability on Earth Day as well in the pipeline coming up our papers on gender parity so you know the cannabis industry should be leading and making sure that women are represented in the c-suite as much as men that they're getting paid the same amount as men that they're on boards equally represented as men and Thank You Caleb rands who's agreed to help me lead that paper the medicine of cannabis we're going to be doing a paper on that and that couldn't be more timely we've got some doctors lined up to help us with that paper and we're looking for a couple more so if there are physicians out there who have expertise in the medicine of cannabis please pay me and lastly we're going to be working on a paper on taxes you know one of the one of the reasons that the illicit market is thriving in California is for state taxes and municipal taxes just so high how do we get those taxes down since they cover regulatory costs but they don't force people into the illicit market because the prices are so high the last thing i'll comment on is you know one of the things the Policy Council tries to do is release public comments to executive agencies who are asking questions from experts they want to know you know what the cannabis industry thinks on certain issues and so right now there are three federal agencies you can comment DEA FDA and NIDA so I'll say a couple words about each but I'm gonna really focus on the DEA because that's I think where I want folks watching this webinar to pay attention this is complicated stuff and I had to turn to some expert advice here Jodi a Berggren is the former chief of staff of the yay and a partner at Cadwallader one of the biggest most reputable oldest law firms in the country she's in DC but they're based in New York and she's super smart on this on these issues of federal significance particularly when it comes to issues related to the DEA and so I asked her to help me break this down for us so thank you Jodi the DEA is asking for public comments on their notice of proposed rulemaking on marijuana research comments are due May 22nd as you probably know that University of Mississippi's basically had the exclusive rights to rights to research marijuana for quite some time and we need research to know all the medical benefits of cannabis we have a lot of anecdotal evidence that cannabis helps for lots of different ailments we have some FDA clinical trials but there's a great deal we don't know and we need more research and we need data enter the DEA so let's think about this for a minute do we really want the DEA in charge of cannabis research I don't but that's where we find ourselves today so we have to ask ourselves whether these proposed rules will actually facilitate cannabis research because we are tax payers the DEA works for us is this what we want do we want DEA in charge of research I think not and if not then we need if we need to fight them we need to you need to unite as an industry we need to file comments let's say this is a bad idea and I'm gonna do that shortly so here's here's sort of the background here's the history in August of 2016 the DEA announced that they wanted to expand research into the medicinal properties of marijuana by increasing the supply of marijuana available for research sounds great right sure they said that it would start accepting applications for marijuana cultivators as long as the newly registered growers would sell their supply only to DEA licensed marijuana researchers huh since that announcement over 30 entities have applied to be registered to manufacture marijuana to supply researchers and the DEA has done nothing 20:16 they've acted on none of them not one so a lawsuit was filed recently in DC asking the DC Circuit to intervene and to force the DEA to act and that's why the DEA recently issued this notice for public comment so what is that what does the notice say it says that DEA is banned by the Single Convention our Kotik drugs from 1961 in how it license licenses cultivators of marijuana for medical research this is the first time as far as we know a regulation mentioned that mentions the Single Convention treaty as a separate law that a registered registrant much must comply with to implant obtained of registration this is pretty ironic think about this this administration the Trump administration has opposed the International Criminal Court they've opposed the UN they've opposed NATO and suddenly one of their agencies is saying that we have to comply with an international treaty from 1961 huh so DEA now proposes new regulations require licensed growers to transfer all of its output to the DEA the new regulation would exclude research for fda-approved drugs so this would not apply to companies that are doing clinical trials but it would apply to everybody else here's the kicker the DEA will consider prior compliance with federal not state narcotics laws in granting or denying the registration that means technically since all cannabis companies that are operating currently are technically in violation of federal law they won't they won't qualify to provide cannabis to the DEA for research this doesn't bode well for applicants with existing grow operations who may be state compliant that are bought violating federal law and then what happens to these these 30 fed these 30 applications that have been sitting around for four years they say no new applications will be considered until all of the applications that were accepted for filing before the effective date of the rule have been granted or denied given that there's a four year background a backlog on these pending applications it could be quite a while before any of these new applications even get considered this is likely to drive current applicants to withdraw their pending applications and start all over again so what are the key takeaways here this grants a great deal of authority and autonomy to DEA a law enforcement agency not a health or a research and agency and law enforcement agency this is exactly the opposite of what we want to be doing here it disallows companies that are currently breaking federal law from even applying it creates a cumbersome procedure with huge administrative hassles for everyone and probably large costs it slightly likely designed to discourage applications which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do and it's likely to lead to additional delays so my response is hell no if you're listening to this think about it read the public comments file your own letter reach out to us with your ideas because we will be filing comments within the next 60 days I'll also mention that NIDA the National Institute on Drug Abuse is asking for comments on dosing research and they're wondering whether five milligrams is the right dose per person in order to determine you know the level of consumption those responses are due on May 1st and we've asked our science committee to take a look at that technical question and then lastly I'll just mention that the FDA reopened their comments we we submitted comments before the due date but FDA FDA saying they didn't receive enough comme
ts on CBDs so if you're still interested that comment period is open again the policy council is always accepting new applicants so if you're interested in plying and helping us do the work that we do please shoot me an email Andrew at the cannabis industry org thanks for listening well thank you for that Andrew and I appreciate the tenacity of you and the policy Council to address all of these issues this year so looking forward to all that content before we get final words a reminder to the audience if you're joining us through face book please leave any comments any questions in the comments and we will see them if you're on Twitter you can tweet your comments and questions at NCIA org and if you're tuning in through zoom there is a little chat feature at the bottom there where you can ask your question of Andrew or Michelle so before we turn to the QA any final thoughts from from you today Michelle sure I think the final thought that I just like to leave everybody with is again not to harp too much on coronavirus but I do think that you know it's again on the forefront of all of our minds as we live through it and I just want to you know really reiterate to people that although it seems overwhelming and it feels like that's all Congress is doing and everything is hit pause that is very much not the case like I mentioned earlier we are here we are talking to offices just because we can't walk in the halls of Congress doesn't mean that we are all not working from home staffers are calling we're working I just want to make sure that during this time again that we're saying as an association engaged with our members so that we can hear from you and again reiterate whatever it is that you have to say and your stories and your needs up to those to those halls not halls right now but to those to those offices that can help you out and so I would just ask everybody to again stay engaged with us stay engaged the the political process again whether that has to do chrome virus other that has to do with the presidential election whether that has to do with your state or local elections I think that it's you know we have more time now than ever to do some research and think about things that were passionate about and really make a difference I think that that's really actually a beautiful really positive silver lining of this is that it reminds us that we all have the power to still make a difference and again the political process and elections are such a huge piece of that if you're not happy with who's representing you and what they're doing then this is your moment because November is coming and and whether whether coronavirus likes it or not and we're gonna have elections and and it's important just not to lose site of that so I think that's one of the parting words and the other thing I just want to mention before we turn it over to questions is that we unfortunately also had to postpone our annual our 10th annual cannabis industry Lobby days we usually do that in May obviously given everything that's going on we made the difficult decision to postpone that but we have new dates for it it is September 15th through the 17th which will hopefully not be too hot here in DC but we hope that people will be able to mark their calendars for that new date we're actually you know excited it's funny how the world works like I said November is coming and you know I think it's gonna be really really impactful to have hundreds hopefully of our members come out to DC less than two months before before a presidential and and you know just Election Day in general and so I would just implore people I know it's a little bit in flux right now and we all kind of don't know what's going on with booking flights or anything like that but hopefully we're in the clear by September so maybe you could get a good deal on airfare who knows but just want to mention that that you know that we're sad that we won't be seeing everybody in in May but don't forget about us and we hope to have you here in DC and in September so that you can talk about all things thanking 280 easy scheduling and small business to members of Congress so we hope to see you guys then great yeah Lobby days will be a great way to wrap up the summer so Before we jump into questions any final words from you today Andrew you know I would just say kudos to governor's you know we've seen a lack of leadership at the federal level both on coronavirus and on cannabis but the governors are stepping up and leading and it's really cool to watch you know there are some in particular who or who are shining examples but but all around the states we're seeing governor's step up and we're seeing in it the cannabis industry thrive during a really tough time yeah one last thing I want to say Bethany is that you know it's such an a weird time right now frankly but again just like Andrew said I have been so inspired by tales of our industry banding together you know I have heard about members in the industry who have masks because people literally have to wear masks you know in different sects the industry who are donating those to hospitals who are making hand sanitizer who are really banding together and those stories again are going to be really really impactful and we tell members of Congress or anybody I mean frankly just to be a good human being that we are we are members of our communities who care about our patients our consumers our neighbors and and so I would just also say to everybody to keep up the good work and how how inspiring that is great I totally agree Michelle so let us jump into questions from our audiences on Facebook Twitter and those tuning into the webinar pans are all six feet apart and that picture is physical distancing we promise let's start with a very active member of NCI a Jayson Horst his question is is there an opportunity in the phase for bill to get the substance of the safe banking Act passed at least with regard to those businesses deemed essential by state or local authorities given the cash handling issues addressed earlier great question well I think the answer is yes I I think that there the opportunities abound for what we can do in the face for bill I would say right now the first priority is to again figure out what we all want because again NCI a doesn't want to ask for something different than MC ba is asking for that CTF is asking for because then we won't get anything and so it's really really important now more than ever to have a unified voice I have already been in discussion with congressman Perlmutter and Senator Merkley is office about the different opportunities and ways in which we might be able to attach safe we haven't actually had a discussion yet about tying the safe banking act to the essential businesses piece that's kind of been two separate things but again all options are on the table right now and so I absolutely think it's possible it just again we take our cues a lot of the time not all the time but a lot times from what these offices what you know we we have to defer to them sometimes and what they feel comfortable doing is the sponsors of our legislation and so I love thank you Jason for this idea I'm gonna I'm gonna hit them up after this and and ask if they have any thoughts or if they've been having those discussions but unfortunately I think the short answer is yes do you add anything to that no I think Michelle covered it great let's see I'm seeing a question about New Jersey if their ballot question is is moving forward if the campaign is moving there in New Jersey do either of you have any insight about moving forward with legalization in the state of New Jersey I personally do no I it's more of a question for MPP as if you get an empty Pease website you probably glean some some information about New Jersey there yep Marijuana Policy Project is a great organization that's been involved on the ground state to state working to legalize in this state-by-state dominoes following model that we've seen the last few years for sure here's another question from Twitter in addition to the common hygiene that we already know are there specific precautions that producers or consumers could take around coronavirus to protect themselves anything coming to mind for either of you I mean I think the most important thing at the other day is we are not medical professionals we are not healthcare professionals and so I don't think that it would necessarily be prudent of me to give advice about that especially considering the seriousness of the situation that we're in right now but that being said I think that what we need to do is follow what the CDC and the World Health Organization say and follow those guidelines follow what your state is saying and follow them to a tee take every precaution necessary wash your hands if you have masks you know use them you know whatever that may be but again I I would just I would err on the side of listening to the professionals in this case but I hope that you guys stay safe and we appreciate you you still working yes I would add to that as someone who works with NCI a members on content there have been quite a few blogs coming through from our members from HR professionals and facilities professionals with that kind of extra level of advice so I certainly encourage our viewers to log onto our website the cannabis industry org and check out some of the blog's that our members and committees have been submitting that expand on that very question okay let's see if there's any more questions there's one more here before we wrap our cannabis company employees eligible for recovery rebates I would think so if they file individual tax returns well I'm not sure the answer to that one um I think if we're talking about the the $1200 checks if I understand this right night I hope that I am I believe the answer is yes so so that's the short answer again the the stimulus package that came out the other day is very very very long and so we're also we're also going through that and trying to suss out exactly which pieces will apply to the cannabis industry which pieces won't apply like I mentioned earlier you know unfortunately some of not all of these things are going to apply to cannabis to the cannabis industry just because of our status at the federal level but the good news is that a lot of these funds are going to be sent to the states to allocate them and for States to deem how they how they need to use those funds and so you know if you're in a state like Colorado for instance I would assume that you know governor Poulos is be therefore for the cannabis industry and help her he can and so I think that it's important to remember that it's not you know although it's a bill passed by Congress it is gonna have that trickle-down effect if you will to the states and hopefully they can sort of suss that out and deem you know what they want to do with it makes sense one more question just came in and then I think we'll cut off states are relaxing rules around online signature gathering for ballot initiatives will this benefit any cannabis legislation going forward sure agree okay well as we wrap up I do want to mention NCI a is responding to this change in our world by increasing our digital sponsorship offerings they're available across all of em CIA's digital properties and packages start as low as two hundred and fifty dollars so if digital sponsorships are something that interests you as an NCI a member please email biz dev at the cannabis industry org or give us a call at eight eight eight six eight three five six five zero Andrew and Michelle thank you both so much for spending time with me in the morning updating our audience on what's going on at the federal level we forgot to mention that Bethany's podcast was top twenty-five on Apple is alright almost so yeah NCI is cannabis industry voice is n CIA's weekly podcast we have been running it for about three and a half years since the 2016 presidential election and we are with up-and-down in the top fifty for us business news on Apple podcast so you can find that on any of the platforms you listen to podcasts just search for n CIA's cannabis industry voice thanks Bethany thanks everyone stay healthy and safe out there Thank You Michelle thanks everybody for tuning in join our next educational webinar in the future
