Mark Sanford, the Republican representative from South Carolina, is co-sponsoring legislation that would make it easier for states with legalized cannabis to make the same deductions offered to other businesses.
The bill, which is titled the Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2017, was introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) back on March 30 and would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow deductions and credits relating to expenditures in connection with cannabis sales conducted in compliance with state law.
According to a post by Rep. Sanford on Facebook, he believes this bill would make it more of a level playing field for cannabis businesses in legal states.
“The principle here is simple, if a state makes something legal…it ought to be treated on par and equally with other legal businesses in the state….In just the last year alone, 28 states passed laws allowing for the legal use of medical marijuana, but because marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, small businesses in the states that sell marijuana legally are not allowed to deduct business expenses.”
For Sanford, this issue is not whether you believe cannabis should be legalized or not—it’s whether you believe in what the founding fathers were striving for when creating the United States.
“Whether you’re for or against the medical use of marijuana matters less than whether we really subscribe and adhere to the founders’ belief in federalism…because it was one of the key balancing tools to offsetting an overgrown and controlling federal government,” Sanford wrote.
Curbelo’s bill has received quite a lot of support from fellow representatives in Congress, so far there has been 38 total representatives to co-sponsor the bill—24 of which have been Democrats, while 14 have been Republicans.
Here is a list of the co-sponsors:
- Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR-3]
- Rep. Polis, Jared [D-CO-2]
- Rep. DeGette, Diana [D-CO-1]
- Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]
- Rep. Perlmutter, Ed [D-CO-7]
- Rep. Heck, Denny [D-WA-10]
- Rep. Schrader, Kurt [D-OR-5]
- Rep. Smith, Adam [D-WA-9]
- Rep. Courtney, Joe [D-CT-2]
- Rep. O’Rourke, Beto [D-TX-16]
- Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]
- Rep. Correa, J. Luis [D-CA-46]
- Rep. Ryan, Tim [D-OH-13]
- Rep. Titus, Dina [D-NV-1]
- Rep. Kihuen, Ruben J. [D-NV-4]
- Rep. McClintock, Tom [R-CA-4]
- Rep. Joyce, David P. [R-OH-14]
- Rep. Coffman, Mike [R-CO-6]
- Rep. Hastings, Alcee L. [D-FL-20]
- Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]
- Rep. DelBene, Suzan K. [D-WA-1]
- Rep. Reed, Tom [R-NY-23]
- Rep. Rosen, Jacky [D-NV-3]
- Rep. Rohrabacher, Dana [R-CA-48]
- Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]
- Rep. Costello, Ryan A. [R-PA-6]
- Rep. Lewis, Jason [R-MN-2]
- Rep. Gabbard, Tulsi [D-HI-2]
- Rep. Emmer, Tom [R-MN-6]
- Rep. Sanford, Mark [R-SC-1]
- Rep. Gaetz, Matt [R-FL-1]
- Rep. McCollum, Betty [D-MN-4]
- Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]
- Rep. Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA-50]
- Rep. McNerney, Jerry [D-CA-9]
- Rep. Davis, Rodney [R-IL-13]
- Rep. Paulsen, Erik [R-MN-3]
