*By Jacqueline Corba*
Voters are effectively pressuring lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to publicly support the easing cannabis laws, said the deputy director of the National Organization for Marijuana Laws.
In an interview Tuesday with Cheddar, the deputy director, Paul Armentano said politicians were realizing that marijuana enjoyed greater popularity than they did.
"With the midterm elections approaching, more and more members of Congress from both parties now acknowledge that advocating for marijuana policy reform is not a political liability, rather its a political opportunity," said Armentano.
Last Friday ー on 4/20, of all days ー Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, introduced a bill to decriminalize weed. A few days earlier, the majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had introduced a bill to remove hemp from the list of controlled substances.
Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop using federal anti-drug laws to block medical marijuana research. And even President Trump changed his tune last week when he promised Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, he would support legal protections in states where marijuana is legal.
A majority of Americans ー 60 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll ー said they support marijuana legalization.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-momentum-driving-politicians-to-back-cannabis).
Dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies called stablecoins are on the rise, and U.S. regulators are taking notice.
Senate Republicans have rejected an effort to begin debate on a bipartisan infrastructure deal that senators brokered with President Joe Biden.
While the Biden administration has been busy undoing some of former President Trump's legacy decisions, the latest military branch, the U.S. Space Force established in 2019, isn't going anywhere.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to the head of Unilever after its subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling its ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem.
Canada will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into Canada on Aug. 9, and those from the rest of the world on Sept. 7.
The Biden administration is blaming China for a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year.
The State Department will offer rewards up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of anyone engaged in foreign state-sanctioned malicious cyber activity, including ransomware attacks, against critical U.S. infrastructure.
The U.S. government is starting to deposit child tax credit money into the accounts of more than 35 million families.
Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, and Ron Wyden unveiled the draft of a historic cannabis decriminalization bill on Wednesday, more than five months after originally announcing it.
While testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell offered his most extensive comments yet on the possibility of a central bank digital currency.
