Our outdated marijuana laws put Americans in danger. It's past time for federal cannabis reforms.

Travis Mason, a former Marine working as a cannabis dispensary security guard, dreamed about becoming a police officer. That dream never came true. In 2016, Travis was shot and killed during a robbery at work.

Tragically, crimes like the one that took Travis' life aren't uncommon. Why? Because the federal government can't get out of its own way.

Under federal law, institutions providing financial services to legitimate, state-legal cannabis businesses are subject to criminal prosecution. Credit card companies won’t process transactions from dispensaries, and most banks won’t give loans or allow state-legal cannabis businesses to open accounts. This forces small businesses to operate in all cash, making them and their employees sitting ducks for violent robberies.

That’s why Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado, introduced the SAFE Banking Act. This bipartisan bill would eliminate public safety hazards, grant state-legal businesses access to the banking system, and allow the IRS to more effectively collect its fair and substantial share of taxes.

To date, the House of Representatives has passed SAFE Banking six times, largely on a bipartisan basis. The most recent standalone version passed with 106 Republicans voting in support.

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Yet, the Senate won't act. By refusing to take up incremental reform bills like SAFE Banking, congressional leadership is perpetuating federal cannabis prohibition and allowing the unsustainable patchwork of federal and state cannabis laws to fester.

This lack of parity not only threatens public safety and industry access – most often for minorities and small businesses – it also prevents research and burdens the creation of federal revenue.

We've fallen behind the times

While America remains trapped in antiquated cannabis policies, other countries – including the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Germany and Israel – have modified their laws to allow for varying degrees of legality and medical research.

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In the United States, cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, meaning it’s federally prohibited for medical purposes and more highly regulated than synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which killed more than 55,000 Americans in 2020 alone.

Yet, in true bureaucratic hypocrisy, the federal government has held a patent on medicinal cannabis since 2003.

If you’re among the dwindling 32% of Americans who don’t approve of federal cannabis reforms, you might assume its prohibition hinders its overall production, keeps it off the streets and prevents it from falling into the hands of children. But you would be wrong.

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Continued federal prohibition incentivizes illegal and unsafe production, just as alcohol prohibition did 100 years ago. Illegal grow operations often out-compete legal producers, who work within costly state regulations without the benefits of standard business deductions and access to capital to deliver safe and reliable goods to of-age individuals.

Thankfully, legalizing cannabis is no longer the divisive issue it once was.

An overwhelming 91% of Americans support either medical or recreational cannabis legalization, and 47 states have legalized cannabis to some degree.

How we should move forward

So, where do federal lawmakers go from here?

The federal government needs to respect the will of states that have enacted varying forms of legality and prepare for an inevitable end to prohibition. As Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas noted, “The federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.”

The government must also recognize that federal regulators, like the alcohol industry, have an important role to play in ensuring safe production and consumption. They must have the opportunity to weigh in on what a federal framework should look like.

Simultaneously, Congress should help states and localities remedy the disproportionate consequences of cannabis criminalization. More than 14 million Americans suffer from cannabis-related arrest records that occurred over the past 20 years. Yet today, Americans in 18 states have legal access to recreational cannabis.

Penalizing Americans for minor offenses that are no longer illegal in most states doesn’t put the metaphorical genie back in its bottle. It forecloses a lifetime of employment and housing opportunities and increases recidivism rates.

Furthermore, while lawmakers debate various regulatory and decriminalization proposals, President JoBiden should immediately “down schedule” cannabis via his executive authority. This would allow long-forbidden studies to inform our nation’s cutting-edge scientists on everything from multiple sclerosis and epilepsy treatments to highway impairment standards.

The simple truth is that continued federal cannabis prohibition is neither tenable nor the will of the American electorate. It’s time for Congress to act on achievable, incremental cannabis reform that can build the bipartisan consensus necessary to become law and improve millions of lives.

Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican, represents Ohio’s 14th Congressional District. A co-chair of the Cannabis Caucus, Joyce has led the bipartisan effort to enact federal cannabis reform and authored landmark legislation to that effect, including the STATES Act, the Common Sense Cannabis Reform Act and the HOPE Act.

Former Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, served Colorado in the U.S. Senate from 2015 to 2021, where he championed legislation to increase access to banking for the cannabis industry as well as the STATES Act to codify federal protections for states that choose to legalize marijuana. He is currently a senior adviser for the National Cannabis Roundtable.

This column is part of a series by USA TODAY Opinion about police accountability and building safer communities. The project began in 2021 by examining qualified immunity and continues in 2022 by examining various ways to improve law enforcement. The project is made possible in part by a grant from Stand Together, which does not provide editorial input.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Our marijuana laws put Americans at risk. Pass federal cannabis reform