A pair of congressmen filed a bill on Wednesday that’s intended to help small marijuana growers compete against large corporations when cannabis is federally legalized, proposing to give them the ability to ship and sell products directly to consumers within and across state lines.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) is leading the legislation—titled the “Small and Homestead Independent Producers (SHIP) Act”—alongside Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
As Congress continues to work toward ending cannabis prohibition, there have been concerns that smaller businesses will struggle to compete against the handful of multi-state operators that have the resources and infrastructure to quickly expand, threatening to further consolidate the market when the federal floodgates finally open.
The SHIP Act is designed to minimize that risk and maximize opportunities for those smaller farmers and producers.
“It is a daunting business environment that they’re facing. Markets are consolidating,” Huffman told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview ahead of the bill’s introduction. “The huge multinational corporations are certainly going to do very well, but we want to make sure that the smaller operations have a chance to compete and succeed.”
Direct-to-consumer models have historically benefitted small farmers in traditional agriculture markets, allowing them to bring their products to
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