United States Senate Approves Cannabis Banking

Sledge · June 24, 2016

Marijuana Trends & Articles

Jun 21, 2016

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Years after Colorado completely legalized the offer of cannabis, most banks there still don’t offer administrations to the organizations related. Budgetary establishments are stuck between state law that has legalized pot and government law that bans it. Banks’ government controllers don’t completely perceive such organizations and force onerous reporting prerequisites on banks that manage them. This has been a great burden to the cannabis industry, but it looks like that is going to change soon.

Last week, the United States Senate Appropriations Committee approved an addition to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill that is going to make it easier for banks to provide services to the cannabis industry. At the moment, many banks are scared to open up accounts for cannabis businesses because of federal penalties. As a result, many marijuana businesses have been operating simply on cash.

“More than half of the U.S. population lives in jurisdictions where marijuana is legal for adult or medical use,” Robert Capecchi, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, stated. “Millions of marijuana consumers are relying on licensed and regulated businesses to provide them with safe and legal access to marijuana.”

“Current federal policy all but ensures marijuana businesses operate on a cash-only basis, which raises safety concerns for their employees and the surrounding communities,” Capecchi added. “This measure should ease financial institutions’ concerns about opening accounts for these state-legal businesses.”

For this bill to become law, the entire Senate would need to pass the appropriations bill. In addition to that, the House must then take on similar lexicon in its Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. Finally, the final step would be the approval of the president. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a similar amendment last year, however, it was not included in the last spending bill.

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