After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's filed the long-awaited Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) with the Senate, Cannabis Practice Chair Jonathan Robbins spoke with Cannabis Business Times on what the bill, if passed, would mean for existing cannabis operators and business hopefuls in state-legal markets. CAOA would federally decriminalize cannabis and remove it from the authority of the Controlled Substance Act. Individual states, however, would still be able to restrict and regulate marijuana distribution.

Robbins was quoted: “It will be fantastic to be able to negotiate license agreements or distribution agreements where product can actually be sold across state lines. If I represent a multistate operator and they want to do a distribution agreement [now] … with a big brand out West, you can’t just drop a pallet from California and ship it to Florida. Especially with edibles, it makes it so impossible because you … have to get the genetics from the operator, then you have to have a team come in and teach them how to cultivate it properly and … how to manufacture these edibles.”