Search Results: financial (296)


Banks in the United States love money, except marijuana money. For years state-legal marijuana operations have struggled to find banks that will take their accounts out of fear of federal action for supporting a federally illegal industry.
Those issues may now be a thing of the past in Colorado at least, as the state legislature yesterday gave approval to a Colorado pot credit union of sorts, that will give medical and recreational marijuana businesses access to otherwise normal banking services.

You have probably heard by now that the state of Colorado harvested over five million dollars in the first five days of legal recreational marijuana sales. The 25% tax imposed on those sky-high sales figures will surely be welcomed by all as the funds begin to flow back into their communities.
The implementation of this much needed cannabis reform seems to have opened a lot of eyes, and gained a lot of support from everyone, it seems, except for out-of-touch politicians and “fat and lazy” pundits. Oh, and Mexican narcoterrorist drug cartels.

Last week we gave you several headlines about a recent ACLU survey which showed that statistics covering marijuana arrests across the nation were falling along strict, and disturbing, racial lines.
According to the report, on the national level blacks are four times more likely to be arrested for a weed-related crime, despite the fact that blacks and whites use marijuana at relatively equal rates. That disparity in arrest rates jumps as high as 18 to 1 in cities like St. Louis where local Metro Police Chief Sam Dotson dismisses accusations of racial profiling with blockhead quotes like, “Law enforcement is not…black and white.”

After the SAFE Banking Act, a measure that would allow banks and financial institutions to serve legal marijuana companies, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on September 25, Colorado Congressman Ed Perlmutter was confident of the bill’s chances in the Senate.

“There have been good signs coming out of the Senate indicating that they’re interested in moving this bill forward,” he told a crowd of marijuana regulators and business owners at Denver’s Marijuana Management Symposium in October, adding that he expected the Senate to vote on the bill “over the next two to three months.”

The United States House of Representatives just approved a bill that would allow banks and financial institutions to serve marijuana businesses in states where it is legal without risking federal prosecution, marking a landmark step towards marijuana reform.

Introduced by Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter, the SAFE Banking Act needed approval from two-thirds of the House’s 435 members, or 290 yes votes. It got 321, becoming the first marijuana-centered bill to reach a Congressional floor for a vote — as well as the first to pass.

The push for federal cannabis banking legalization took another baby step on July 23 when the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs heard a bill that would allow financial institutions to serve companies connected with cannabis, which is still federally illegal.

Introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the SAFE Banking Act would protect banks and other financial outfits from federal charges if they provide accounts, loans and other services to pot businesses as well as ancillary enterprises that work with cannabis-focused enterprises, such as real estate agencies, accountants and other business vendors.

Over 100 cannabis businesses and organizations just sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling for federal legalization of the plant, but their request didn’t stop there. The letter also urged federal funding be used to diversify the cannabis industry, as well as administer retroactive justice for old pot convictions and help communities impacted the most by the war on drugs.

Cannabis is still far from legal in the eyes of the federal government, but Congress has been more open-minded lately. The House of Representatives has advanced legislation that would explicitly allow banks and financial institutions to serve medical and recreational cannabis businesses in states where they are legal, and the Senate just held a hearing on the same bill.

The United States House of Representatives held a hearing on the challenges of marijuana business banking on February 13, gaining attention and praise for doing what congressional leaders had not done in the past: actually consider federal marijuana reform.

The House Financial Services Committee hearing on Colorado Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s SAFE Banking Act provided more bark than bite, however, with no vote on the measure taking place.

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