Reps. Jason Osborne and Matt Wilhelm, a Republican and a Democrat, respectively, announced their push with backing from groups like Americans for Prosperity – New Hampshire, The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, and the Marijuana Policy Project. The survey found only a slight decrease in drug testing since the start of the pandemic. Only 7.9 percent of respondents said they had reduced or delayed testing, but all of them said they still tested new applicants. Veterans fought for freedom, yet those who choose medical cannabis are treated unfairly under the current federal regime. “I found the practice tests extremely helpful. I passed the DANB RHS exam and felt that the subject matter was thoroughly covered by your practice tests. The viewing of films and answering questions on them was especially helpful. Thank you very much for the assistance in preparing for the DANB RHS exam.”
The cannabis industry dedicated significant resources towards lobbying the Colorado State Legislature on behalf of policies intended to increase cannabis use. Creating transparency about the relationships between the cannabis industry, related industries, and policymakers is essential to ensure appropriate regulation of cannabis products. The cannabis industry spent over $7 million (inflation adjusted) from FY 2010–2021 to lobby the Colorado legislature on 367 bills. In 48% of lobbyist reports lobbyists did not disclose their funder’s cannabis affiliation, and cannabis organizations used strategies that may have obscured the true amount and source of funding. Lobbyists and agencies concurrently represented the alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis industries, possibly facilitating inter-industry alliances when interests align. Congress have flouted when it comes to reforming cannabis laws so patients, consumers and industry members can move past a storied history of criminalization, incarceration, discrimination, banking and employment issues and more.

Shanita Penny is internationally recognized for her prowess in management consulting, having spent over a decade assisting Fortune 500 companies improve business performance. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Baltimore and Towson University where she was a Wright Global Scholar. In Transportation and Logistics Management at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
When Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) served as governor of Colorado in 2012, he unsuccessfully tried to convince voters to reject a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, in large part because he worried it would encourage more use by young people. But with years of data now generated by his state and other that have since enacted legalization, he’s admitting that his concern was unfounded. December 2, 2021 (Washington, DC) – On November 30th, the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR) announced that Senator Daschle (D-SD) and former Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) will be serving as the organization’s bipartisan Co-Chairs. The announcement was first reported in Politico’s Morning Cannabis Newsletter in a section titled “Daschle and Walden Take Washington. Additionally, on Wednesday, December 1st, remarks from Senator Daschle were included in The Hill’s CPEAR-sponsored event titled Regulating Cannabis, the first cannabis-focused event The Hill has hosted.

The Shaky Foundations of Modern Farm Policy

Joyce’s bipartisan legislation, which he introduced with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), would provide federal grants to help state and local governments establish and improve expungement programs for cannabis offenses. Near the end of the hearing, Mace shared that the federal government used cannabis prohibition to investigate and raid communities of color. In a separate, earlier analysis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that marijuana consumption among high school students declined during the peak years of state-legal recreational cannabis legalization. Education and government policy have long been two of Shanita Penny’s biggest passions – along with cannabis.
No matter how niche your field of interest might be, we’re here to help you prepare for test day. Our 5-test bundle of practice exams costs less than the cost of taking the actual certification exam. Upon passing the DANB’s Coronal Polish Exam for Arizona Residents, candidates will receive a certificate from DANB, which serves as proof of their competency in performing coronal polishing procedures.
This certification is required by the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners (ASBDE) for dental assistants to legally perform coronal polish procedures in dental practices within the state of Arizona. The certification also enhances the dental assistant’s professional credentials and demonstrates their commitment to providing high-quality patient care. In his opening testimony, Freedman shared that he formerly worked as the cannabis czar for the state of Colorado. He was appointed by former Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is now a U.S. senator for the state. Since founding CPEAR in 2020, the organization has worked to advance comprehensive federal regulations for cannabis. Littlejohn said people of color come up against multiple barriers when trying to enter the cannabis space.
So it’s only natural that her career took her in the direction of CPEAR, with which she’s worked now for more than two years at the federal level on marijuana issues. The SAFE Banking Act was, as Cannabis Wire reported, recently pitched to a room of bankers at the American Bankers Association summit through the lens of public safety, so it will be interesting to see if the banking bill is discussed during the forum within that context. Another policy lever advocates for equitable approaches to prevention, as youth of colour are more likely to face allegations related to use, which can further marginalize these groups by increasing future risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. When CPEAR launched a year ago, advocacy groups Drug Policy Alliance and NORML both released statements expressing concerns related to those industries’ history of predatory marketing to low-income communities of colour, and their attempts to silence pro-health regulations.
The event featured policymakers including Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). In order for the College to make meaningful progress in its efforts, it is essential for all who are a part of BMC to remember that all campus offices and departments, campus organizations, and campus leaders across constituency groups are responsible for taking action to support equity and anti-racism. “Employers in states that have legalized cannabis have questions such as Can we require pre-employment testing for cannabis? And Should we test workers for cannabis after a workplace accident or incident? The webinar will discuss cannabis use, testing and workplace policy trends,” the announcement read. The announcement drew attention to the patchwork of state laws for medical and adult use cannabis, and the gray areas that these laws can produce for employers.
The senator recorded a video message for an event organized by the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR) on Thursday, in which he talked about Colorado’s history with legalization and focused on clearing up misconceptions around the impact of that reform on underage consumption. Once a lobbying engagement begins, the lobbyist or firm is required to file updates four times a year. Those updates sometimes change which lobbyists are involved or add new issues being discussed. When lobbyists stop working for a client, the firm is also supposed to file a report disclosing the end of the relationship. CPEAR will support and amplify (not replace) the critical equity and anti-racism work of existing and future committees, groups, associations, clubs, departments and programs.
Forbes Tate Partners is a bipartisan, integrated full-service public affairs consultancy specializing in government relations, traditional and digital communications, grassroots advocacy and third-party coordination, insights and polling, coalition management, and business development. FTP can help you develop and deliver winning strategies to communicate and engage your key audiences. This white paper seeks to define the fault lines in the current understanding of cannabis and its impact on mental health and provides recommendations to advance an evidence-based regulatory system.
I am not alone in recognizing the benefits of a federal regulatory framework for cannabis. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have introduced a cannabis reform bill, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), which is a solution to many of our existing cannabis problems. There are many competing priorities to juggle this year, but we need to establish a safe and equitable American cannabis industry.
The report points to studies that plainly contradict claims often made by prohibitionists that creating regulated cannabis markets would lead more underage people to consume marijuana. It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it’s less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don’t have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work. The report’s ultimate takeaway is that increasing awareness about cannabis and making research easier to do and more available curbs youth cannabis use. “Under government guidance, access to research, and increased exposure to community-driven, science-based after-school programming, cannabis use among young people decreases and prevents intake at an early age,” wrote the authors.
The federal government should also use cannabis tax resources to deliver after-school programs comprised of measurable targets on a timely basis. If we do this right, and I believe we can, federal regulation should decrease youth use. This does not mean legalizing cannabis in all 50 states through federal legislation. The same CPEAR poll I referenced above found that 67 percent of voters nationwide support allowing individual states to decide whether cannabis will be legal in their state. However, as more and more states decide to give their citizens access to medical and adult-use cannabis, a research-based, equitable, and comprehensive national framework for cannabis reform is needed to standardize approaches to key issues. As experts on drug policy, we appreciate your thoughtful leadership in creating a serious and bipartisan attempt to examine our nation’s federal cannabis laws.
The latter of these arguments is even more frustrating since the federal government has made the research so difficult. The federal government owes the veteran community both access to cannabis and rigorous research into its potential benefits and harms for medicinal use. When I entered the halls of Congress for the first time in 1979, the idea of legislating cannabis was not only off the table; it was nowhere near it. Like most Americans at the time, my understanding of cannabis was informed by the perspective that fighting drug use was best done through stringent legal penalties and educational programs designed to advance sobriety and abstinence. Additionally, little information was known in those days regarding the long-term impacts or uses of the substance.
While adult use has more momentum than ever as supporters aim to get the bill to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk, he has remained opposed to adult use for years, as Cannabis Wire has reported, so it is unclear whether he will sign it. As amended so far, the bill, which would both legalize cannabis and regulate sales, no longer allows for home cultivation. On the other hand, the report notes cannabis-related harms have been on the rise. We use tracking pixels that set your arrival time at our website, this is used as part of our anti-spam and security measures. Disabling this tracking pixel would disable some of our security measures, and is therefore considered necessary for the safe operation of the website.
Last week the Cannabis Policy, Education and Regulation Coalition (CPEAR) released “Addressing Youth and Cannabis,” a 29-page report that examines data from states where cannabis has been legalized and makes policy recommendations to prevent increased youth use of the drug. According to Marijuana Moment, the group includes members from Altria Client Services, Molson Coors Beverage Company and Constellation Brands. They ask to leave medical cannabis markets exempted from the federal excise tax proposed and for the federal government to balance roles shared between the FDA, TTB and ATF to ensure that individual state markets won’t be adversely affected by federal regulation. CPEAR’s new 29-page report details how researchers have consistently found that youth marijuana use “either decreases or remains flat in regulated cannabis markets”—a point that’s been supported by recent federally funded surveys. The new data is likely to gain the attention in the more than two dozen states that have yet to legalize marijuana. Already in 2023, lawmakers in traditionally conservative states such as Texas, North Carolina and Iowa have introduced legislation to reform cannabis policy.
This tracking pixel is cleared from your system when you delete files in your history. Goepel added that “we” could have done more for the 127,560 veterans who died by suicide in the last 20 years, a number that tracks with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2022 National Veterans Suicide Prevention annual report.
Today, more than 100 million Americans live in a state with legal or medical access to cannabis and cannabis products. As of 2020, the cannabis industry was worth $61 billion, which is expected to grow. The cannabis industry is creating an average of 280 new jobs per day, and states like Arizona and Illinois are seeing their annual tax revenues from cannabis top $1 billion. Recent polling by the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR) shows overwhelming bipartisan support for ending the federal prohibition on cannabis, with 70 percent of voters in favor of ending federal prohibition.
Throughout the podcast, Andrew provides his perspective on how

various players in the cannabis industry would be impacted by
federal legalization and why the industry needs to come together to
move legalization forward. The few Republican lawmakers in Congress that have been outspoken about their support for federal cannabis policy reform quickly heralded the results of the poll. Executive Director Andrew Freedman made history in 2014 when then-Governor John Hickenlooper tapped him to become Colorado’s cannabis czar, in charge of implementing the world’s first adult-use cannabis market. Since then, he has advised 17 different governments in establishing their cannabis regulatory frameworks.
Whether its oil and gas, insurance, security, tobacco or alcohol, these groups are using their power and money to influence cannabis policy reform. The NCIA’s comments are perhaps the most comprehensive of the group, outlining an equitable, state-centric and small business-focused plan for federal cannabis reform. The MCBA’s comments reflect its mission and focus on things like restorative justice, minority participation, equitable access and inclusion. Earlier this summer in July, Senators Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden and Cory Booker held a press conference where they introduced the first draft of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA). During the press conference, the Senators laid out the foundation for their comprehensive cannabis legalization measure, emphasizing the need to address social equity and social justice matters, while also asking for support in revising the draft bill. New research is confirming past findings that cannabis consumption among youth doesn’t increase when jurisdictions legalize the plant, but the study comes from a lobbying group with membership including big tobacco and alcohol firms.
This retrospective observational study analyzed publicly available lobbying expenditures data from fiscal years (FY) 2010–2021. Measures included inflation-adjusted monthly lobbying expenditures by funder and lobbyist, origin of funding, and lobbyist descriptions of cannabis industry clients. This dataset was supplemented with business license documentation, legislative histories, and public testimony. As a Democrat from a rural and conservative state like South Dakota, I understand the hesitation of some elected officials to engage on this issue, and I’ve walked in their shoes. To date, the federal government has either ignored these pleas, or pointed to a lack of research as a reason to deny access for veterans.
AFP is a well-known conservative and libertarian political lobbying group founded and funded by the Koch brothers. The Reason Foundation, another Libertarian think-tank and an advocate for prison privatization, also listed the Koch brothers as some of their largest donors in disclosures filed in 2012. We are fully accredited with the Better Business Bureau, and have many satisfied customers who have successfully passed their certification exam with the help of our test preparation materials. The DANB’s Coronal Polish Exam for Arizona Residents can be taken at Pearson VUE testing centers located throughout Arizona, as well as in other states.
Also, he said, hundreds of thousands of people who work in state-licensed industries will no longer face needless hurdles and discrimination—such as a lack of access to financial services, loans, insurance, 2nd Amendment rights, tax deductions, certain professional security clearances and other privileges. Of U.S. adults, 60% support medical and recreational use, while 31% support medical use only and 8% believe cannabis should not be legal, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey. And a Gallup Poll conducted in October and released Nov. 15 shows 68% of Americans favor legalization. Multiple bills have been introduced in Congress to reform federal cannabis law and remove Marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Another federally funded study, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), was released in October showing that youth marijuana use dropped in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and as more states moved to enact legalization.
Ahead of the event on Thursday, the alcohol and tobacco industry-backed marijuana policy group CPEAR, whose executive director previously served as Hickenlooper’s cannabis czar in state government, also released a report analyzing data on youth marijuana use rates amid the state-level legalization movement. Before joining FTP, Penny served as President of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) where she advocated for social equity policies in the industry, such as increasing diversity, expanding equal access, and promoting economic empowerment in communities most impacted by the war on drugs. She has lobbied on Capitol Hill with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to help reform federal cannabis laws. She founded a boutique cannabis consultancy, Budding Solutions, to help clients establish and scale compliant, successful cannabis businesses. She also co-founded DocHouse, a craft cannabis cultivator and manufacturer acquired by Ayr Wellness. Penny currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Sensible Markets and on the Advisory Board of Regennabis, and Shoki Beverages.

Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR)

“New entrants to the market commonly find that licenses are not available to newcomers,” she said. “And if they are, they are rendered nearly impossible to secure due to tensions between state and federal law. “There’s gotta be some level of equity and making sure that the communities that had been most most burdened and damaged by the war on drugs get a fair shot at the opportunities for entrepreneurship,” the former governor said. And as an aside, Hickenlooper also stressed the importance of the criminal justice aspects of enacting reform. Most of the other states have either followed it or wished they followed it,” the senator said, adding that “a big focus for me was I was so nervous about kids,” including his own younger children, who might “use marijuana more frequently” if the state legalized. Around the time of Colorado’s historic 2012 legalization vote at the ballot, Hickenlooper was known to say that the measure “sends the wrong message to kids.” Now as a U.S. senator, he’s a champion of the reform, touting the state’s progress and calling for federal descheduling.
Cannabis advocates say that through federal reform, the U.S. government can work to ensure a thriving industry, social equity and justice in communities of color, treatment for veterans with PTSD and more while reducing the illicit market. Perkins Coie senior counsel Andrew Kline is joined by Andrew
Freedman, Colorado’s first cannabis czar under Governor

Hickenlooper and current Executive Director of the Coalition for
Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR). Andrew’s
role in developing a successful operating model for cannabis
regulation and stakeholder collaboration was identified as one of
the reasons for the State of Colorado’s success in implementing
adult-use cannabis legalization by the Brookings Institution.