A GOP senator says he’s hopeful that Congress will have a “discussion” about potentially creating a federal regulatory framework for marijuana in 2025, though he added that he personally wouldn’t vote to federally legalize cannabis.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on sports betting on Tuesday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) drew a parallel between state-level gambling and marijuana laws, arguing that the federal government has a responsibility to provide some level of regulatory oversight for both industries that are being legalized in a growing number of jurisdictions across the country.
But that doesn’t mean he’d support legislation to make either sports better or cannabis federally legal, the senator said.
“I would never vote, as a matter of federal legislation, to legalize gambling at the federal level—in the same way that I wouldn’t for marijuana,” Tillis said. However, he said states that have legalized either activity are effectively facilitating interstate commerce that warrants federal oversight.
“If you’re in a state that’s not legalized, then you’re naive if you don’t think they’re gambling—in the same way that if you’re in a state that doesn’t have pot legal, then you’re going to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and buying pot that,
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