Pot lobby highlights Russia arrest to push for U.S. reform

Cannabis CEOs highlight Griner’s plight

The cannabis industry went to Washington last week with the argument that Russia’s detention of American professional basketball player Brittney Griner is yet another reason to reform federal cannabis law.

Griner has been kept in Russia since Feb. 17, when a drug-sniffing dog at a Moscow airport helped detect hashish oil in her luggage. She was subsequently arrested on charges of drug smuggling. As her detention wears on, some compare her to a hostage taken in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Her situation was one of many things that cannabis executives discussed with senators and members of congress last week.

Nick Kovacevich, chief executive officer of Greenlane Holdings Inc., a Boca Raton, Florida-based maker of custom vaporizers, packaging and cannabis accessories, said the current U.S. situation makes it hard for the country to press for her release.

 “At the same time, we have 2,700 nonviolent cannabis prisoners here in the U.S.,” he said.

“How can we do get the right thing to get her released in Russia when we’re not following through on campaign promises to get people released stateside?”

Arguments that cannabis prisoners should be released have been made by other companies, as well as by a nonprofit group called the Last Prisoner Project, which estimates there are 40,000 prisoners held for some type of cannabis offense overall.

Last week, just as it was reported that Griner’s detention has been extended to May 19, Kovacevich brought up the situation with about a half-dozen lawmakers from both parties. He found they were receptive.

“I don’t think people have been aware of the dynamic and how it could force action from the executive branch,” Kovacevich said, referring to the irony of Russia holding one person for a cannabis-related crime, while the U.S. is still holding thousands — even after many states have legalized it.

It may be a long shot to shake up legislative gridlock, but it shows how politicized the issue of cannabis reform has become, and how the industry’s focus on narrow banking reforms isn’t likely to go far without some more civic-minded add-ons.

Kovacevich’s meetings were among more than 60 that politicians held last week with 20 chief executive officers from some of the biggest U.S. cannabis companies, according to Josh Glasstetter, a spokesman for industry group the U.S. Cannabis Council, which organized the meetings. Senior representatives from law firms and accounting firms with cannabis practices also attended. 

Topics included the prospects for various pieces of legislation with a focus on SAFE Banking — a narrow proposal that would improve the industry’s access to financial services. Companies’ hopes for easy passage of the bill have been stymied by a broader proposal, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed in draft form last July. The industry wants to pivot back to SAFE if the CAOA doesn’t have a shot, and is trying to coax a decision on the CAOA before the August recess, Glasstetter said.

Yet it’s caught between a rock and a hard place. The SAFE act is seen as having a better chance with Republicans because of its narrow focus on financial issues — but by that same token it’s a tough sell to Democrats, who prefer broader legislation like the CAOA that includes social-equity measures. On top of this, broader legislation of any type is currently seen as impossible due to Washington’s jam-packed calendar and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A third path emerged during last week’s talks, however, according to Peter Barsoom, chief executive officer of 1906, a cannabis edibles company.

“I think there’s an opportunity to open up SAFE and add some social-equity provisions that would be acceptable to those on the Republican side,” he told me.

One option for a “SAFE plus” act would be funding for minority entrepreneurs in cannabis through the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which is a part of the U.S. Treasury that focuses on disadvantaged communities, Glasstetter said.

SAFE is just one of seven pieces of legislation circling in Washington, but it’s the one with the best odds, Cantor analyst Pablo Zuanic has pointed out. Yet in a research note last week, he called its chances “still only slightly above 50%” — and even that would be contingent on a two-pronged approach that includes the White House pardoning nonviolent cannabis-related criminal offenses.

Cannabis executives are newly hopeful that conversations last Wednesday and Thursday — Brittney Griner-related or otherwise — have changed that. “If you asked me a few days ago I would have put it at lower than 50%,” Barsoom said.

“Now I would say there’s an 80% chance of something getting done.”