Amazon Is Lobbying the U.S. to Legalize Weed

Amazon is ramping up its pro-weed marketing campaign, asserting on Tuesday that it’s actively lobbying for legislative reforms aimed toward decriminalization and reaffirming its dedication to not screening job candidates for hashish.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice chairman of human sources, declared in a blog post the corporate’s assist for 2 items of laws aimed toward decriminalizing hashish nationwide. The transfer comes amid increasing legalization at the state level, with 36 states permitting some stage of public entry to hashish and 18 states plus Washington, DC, legalizing leisure grownup use.

The first is the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act), launched by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, which might take away hashish from the federal authorities’s record of managed substances, successfully decriminalizing it on the federal stage. The invoice additionally seeks to create new funding packages for communities which were disproportionately affected by cannabis-related incarceration and policing, whereas additionally looking for to expunge related prison data. The invoice was beforehand launched and passed the House final 12 months in a historic vote earlier than in the end stalling within the then Republican-controlled Senate. Nadler reintroduced the invoice in May, including some modifications.

The different proposed regulation that Amazon is supporting is the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act—a invoice launched by outstanding Democrats, together with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in addition to Sens. Cory Booker and Ron Wyden. The laws would equally search to legalize and regulate weed, whereas additionally offering funds to state governments for use in expunging prison data associated to cannabis-related convictions on the state stage.

Amazon, which employs 950,000 individuals within the U.S., stated that it helps these proposed payments for a lot of causes—one in every of which is the untenable patchwork of state legal guidelines and indisputable fact that pre-employment testing for hashish “disproportionately impacts people of color.” The firm additionally famous that its continuous pursuit of “great new team members” implies that eliminating pre-employment testing for hashish permits them to rent from a bigger pool of individuals.

“We are enthused by the notable momentum in the country toward recognizing that today’s status quo is unfair and untenable. We look forward to working with Congress and other supporters to secure necessary reform of the nation’s cannabis laws,” Galetti wrote.

Amazon’s stance on hashish use amongst its ranks started to vary no less than a number of months in the past. In June, stories emerged that the corporate was ditching its pre-employment testing for the intoxicating plant and inspiring the contract supply corporations that function its fleet of blue vans to make it identified that they wouldn’t display for weed, in an obvious bid to broaden driver recruitment efforts.

This is an fascinating flip for Amazon—which has confirmed itself to be a horrible employer in many different methods. On that word, it’s additionally value remembering that everyone—from Elon Musk to the unfortunate ex-governor of New York—is aware of that performing okay with weed is a surefire option to make your self look cool and engender goodwill since most people know that prohibitions on it are simply regressive draconian bullshit.

We reached out to Amazon for touch upon its current endorsement of this laws. We additionally inquired as as to if the corporate plans on investing in any cannabis-related enterprise ventures sooner or later. We will replace this story in the event that they reply.