Bipartisan congressional lawmakers have filed a bill to provide a safe harbor to insurance companies that work with state-legal marijuana businesses.
The Clarifying Law Around Insurance of Marijuana (CLAIM) Act was filed by Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) on Wednesday.
The legislation would protect insurers, brokers and agents from being penalized by federal regulators for providing insurance services to state-licensed marijuana companies.
“Because of the conflict between federal and state law, insurers are still hesitant to write policies for cannabis businesses,” Velázquez said in a press release. “That means thousands of legal small businesses are operating without a safety net. One fire or one storm could wipe out everything an owner has built, with no way to recover. The CLAIM Act fixes this by giving these entrepreneurs access to the same basic insurance protections every other legal business takes for granted.”
Davidson said that “businesses operating legally under state law should be free to purchase insurance, and insurers should be free to serve them.”
“The federal government should not use regulation to interfere with lawful commerce or override decisions made by the states,” he said. “The CLAIM Act removes that federal interference and protects the freedom
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