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Who is newly lobbying Congress on banking?
This week, Cannabis Wire conducted our quarterly analysis of lobbying disclosures, and we unearthed a couple of noteworthy names.
The New England Council, which was founded nearly 100 years ago and describes itself as the “oldest regional business association in the United States,” added SAFER Banking to its filing for the first time.
The Council “endorsed” the bill last year, and sent a letter to the 12 New England Senators “urging them to support” the legislation, Emily Heisig, a Council spokesperson, told Cannabis Wire. The Council has supported cannabis banking legislation, broadly, for years.
Last quarter, the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industries, lobbied on the SAFER Banking Act, too.
(Cannabis Wire reached out to the Institute for comment. We haven’t heard back yet.)
But while the interest of the Institute might seem odd, it’s worth resurfacing this quote from Sen. Cynthia Lummis last year: “The SAFER Banking Act prohibits federal bank regulators from ordering a bank or credit union to close an account based on reputation risk, which will protect energy companies and gun manufacturers from attacks from the left that threaten their business each day.”
It’s always fascinating to see how non-cannabis entities choose to lobby on cannabis policy. Uber, for example, formally lobbied this quarter on cannabis banking, too, though the company has already been quite active on cannabis in Canada. Specifically, Uber Eats offers cannabis delivery in the country.
And, of course, entities like Amazon, AmEx, and Altria continued lobbying this quarter. (ICYMI: Cannabis Wire was the first news organization to report on these companies’ cannabis-related lobbying.)
Can CBD help you quit smoking cigarettes?
Researchers from UCLA are conducting a clinical trial that seeks to “evaluate the efficacy of cannabidiol (CBD) in reducing cigarette smoking.”
“Although there are safe and effective treatments for smoking cessation, not everyone who attempts smoking cessation is successful, even with these treatments. Relapse rates are high, leaving a need for new approaches. Despite justification to evaluate CBD for this indication, human research on the topic is scant. Larger, more extended studies are warranted and essential,” the trial notice reads.
Researchers are seeking to enroll 120 participants and the trial is expected to wrap in late 2026. Participants will received CBD or placebo twice daily for 56 days and fill out surveys on side effects, withdrawal, craving and mood symptoms.
Researchers will also measure participants blood, breath, and urine for the duration of the study and will also follow up with participants at the 1-month and 3-month marks.
Ireland’s Health Research Board publishes its report on cannabis.
The Board, which oversees funding for research in Ireland, conducted the review, titled “The efficacy and safety of medicinal cannabis in adult populations: An evidence review,” as part of its assessment of the Medicinal Cannabis Access Programme.
A total of 47 “reviews on the efficacy and safety of medicinal cannabis for a wide range of health
conditions/clinical indications” were included, and they “generally revealed a fragmented body of research and a low degree of certainty in the evidence for most outcomes,” the review notes.
For example, while the review found that medical cannabis products are effective for certain conditions, like neuropathic pain, it did not find enough support for their use for conditions like anxiety.
“This review will help inform decision making in relation to future policy on the use of prescribed medicinal cannabis along with input from patient groups, clinicians, and service planners,” said Kathryn Lambe, who led the report, in HRB’s announcement about its publication.
+ Connecting the dots: It’s worth highlighting that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III also found the most compelling evidence for the use of cannabis for neuropathic pain, as Cannabis Wire noted in our coverage of the recommendation.
Editors’ note: This post was updated to reflect that while the Council recently added SAFER to its lobbying, it has supported cannabis banking legislation for years.