LOS ANGELES — The Biden administration’s move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous but still controlled drug was hailed as a monumental step in reshaping national policy. But it might do little to ease a longstanding problem in the cannabis industry — a lack of loans, checking accounts and banking services that other businesses take for granted.
Reclassifying Marijuana Banking
Most Americans now live in states where marijuana is legally available in some form. But there’s a problem when it comes to banks: Many don’t want anything to do with cannabis money.
“As far as financial institutions, I don’t necessarily think it’s going to have a demonstrable effect” on how they deal with cannabis operators, said Morgan Fox, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.
Similarly, a banking trade group expected no shift in the legal landscape with the proposed change.
“Any potential decision from the administration to reclassify cannabis has no bearing on the legal issues around banking cannabis,” said Blair Bernstein, a spokesperson for the American Bankers Association. “Cannabis would still be illegal under federal law, and that is a line many banks in this country will not cross.”
People are also reading…
BenFred: Here’s why it just got harder to recruit against Eli Drinkwitz and Mizzou
Southwest Airlines considering changes to its quirky boarding, pick-your-own seating practices
Messenger: SLU soccer star, now 82, faced eviction. His friends came to the rescue.
Full circle: Why Boeing had to buy back a Hazelwood supplier it sold off in 2001
Most Americans live in states where marijuana is legally available in some form. But there’s a continuing problem when it comes to banks: Many financial institutions don’t want anything to do with money from the cannabis industry for fear it could expose them to legal trouble from the federal government.
California Marijuana Banking
Bundles of $20 bills are placed on a table June 27, 2017, as Jerred Kiloh, owner of the Higher Path medical marijuana dispensary, prepares a trip to Los Angeles City Hall to pay his monthly tax payment in cash in Los Angeles.
That conflict has left many growers and sellers in the burgeoning industry in a conundrum in which they are shut out of everyday financial services like opening a bank account or obtaining a credit card. It also has forced many businesses to operate only in cash — sometimes vast amounts — making them ripe targets for crime.
In the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reintroduced legislation that would remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances, expunge criminal records of Americans with low-level marijuana offenses and set new standards to prevent impaired driving. He said the bill has 18 sponsors in the chamber, a sign of momentum for federal marijuana reform.
Approving the bill would “help our country close the book once and for all on the awful and harmful and failed War on Drugs, which all too often has been nothing more than a war on Americans of color,” Schumer said. Congress needs “to bring federal cannabis policy into the 21st century.”
H/T: www.stltoday.com