Congressman Earl Blumenaur, a Democrat from Oregon, will be holding a press conference on June 5th with medical marijuana industry leaders to formally introduce a measure – the Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2013 -which would fix Section 280E of the U.S. tax code, which disallows marijuana access points from taking standard tax deductions. The same code has been used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to attack medical marijuana dispensaries, claiming them as illegal drug cartels. The measure would be a drastic and needed step towards legitimizing the marijuana industry.

In addition to discussing this new tax act, advocates at the press conference will discuss and endorse a new “options paper” that was released by the Senate Finance Committee, which includes the taxation of marijuana as a possible means of raising federal revenue.

The press conference will take place at House Triangle, U.S. Capitol on the southeast side, and will begin at 11am on Wednesday, June 5th.- TheJointBlog