A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators have filed a bill to provide a safe harbor to insurance companies that work with state-legal marijuana businesses.
The Clarifying Law Around Insurance of Marijuana (CLAIM) Act was introduced on Tuesday by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
The legislation would protect insurers, brokers and agents from being penalized by federal regulators for providing insurance services to state-licensed marijuana companies.
“Much like marijuana businesses are barred from using bank accounts, they are also locked out of insurance markets,” Cramer said in a press release. “Businesses, as we know, obviously assume risk. That’s part of being in business. But the risk for cannabis companies that operate in states where it’s actually legal is especially high.”
“The CLAIM Act makes sure insurers can offer their commercial products to regulated marijuana-related businesses without fear of federal prosecution,” he said.
Gallego said that “in states that have legalized marijuana, including Arizona, legitimate cannabis businesses should have the same access to insurance coverage as any other business.”
“I’m proud to partner with Senator Cramer to introduce this commonsense, bipartisan fix,” he said.
This is the fourth Congress in a row that the cannabis business insurance measure has been introduced, and the text of the current bill remains largely the same as prior versions.
Last month, bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers filed a related bill to provide safeguards for banks that work with the cannabis industry.
As it stands, cannabis firms are restricted in their ability to gain property, casualty and title insurance coverage. The CLAIM Act would prohibit federal agencies from penalizing insurance providers for simply covering those businesses, and it would bar insurers from terminating or limiting policies for marijuana companies or ancillary businesses due to the nature of their enterprise.
The legislation also includes a requirement that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study and issue a report on “barriers to marketplace entry, including in the licensing process, and the access to financial services for potential and existing minority-owned and women-owned cannabis-related legitimate businesses.”
It also provides protections for employees of insurers, affirming that they could not be held liable just because they work with a cannabis company.
Supporters of the legislation have argued that providing insurance access to these businesses would mitigate safety risks and prevent the companies from being denied bank financing, which can occur when the businesses lack insurance coverage.
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Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving forward with the process of rescheduling marijuana under federal law.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April issued an order that immediately reclassified state-licensed medical cannabis, as well as marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III. Under a separate order the acting attorney general signed, a hearing is considering more comprehensively moving marijuana to Schedule III.
Testimony in the cannabis rescheduling hearing, overseen by a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge, concluded last week, and participants are now set to file their final briefs by August 17. After that, the judge will issue his own recommendation on rescheduling, and the DEA administrator will then issue a final decision on whether or not to adopt the reform.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said this week that “it is time for Congress to stop dicking around and make weed legal,” touting a bill that he and other Senate Democrats filed this month to federally legalize marijuana.
The post Feds Couldn’t Punish Insurance Companies For Covering Marijuana Businesses Under New Bipartisan Senate Bill appeared first on Marijuana Moment.
