American Express To Marijuana Dispensaries: Get Lost

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Graphic: Fiamma
So American Express won’t allow customers to use their cards to purchase medicinal cannabis? Screw them.

​According to multiple sources at medical marijuana dispensaries, American Express will no longer process transactions from cannabis businesses.

“Please be advised that American Express will no longer allow transactions to be processed at Medical Marijuana dispensaries,” read one email notice from The Farmacy dispensary in West Hollywood, reports LA Snark. “This is a policy change made by American Express, nationwide.”
According to the email, dispensaries are still able to process transactions with MasterCard, Discover and VISA.
The Farmacy told Ana Kasparian at web news show The Young Turks that, beginning last Saturday, April 30, every time they swiped a patient’s American Express card, the transaction would be declined. 
American Express allegedly told personnel at The Farmacy that they have “new guidelines” that came out this year, one of which says they will no longer allow American Express customers to use their cards for medical marijuana purchases.

When Kasparian called American Express, the company denied it had any such policy in place. When asked to double check if they had such a policy, a customer representative once again denied that the company has such a policy.
TYT called The Farmacy back, and the dispensary confirmed that the story is absolutely true: American Express cards reportedly no longer work at that store or at other dispensaries. 
At that point, Kasparian said she called every single marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles. Many of them take no credit cards, but another dispensary confirmed that American Express does not allow their customers to use their cards at cannabis dispensaries.
American Express customers should question the company why they aren’t allowing their customers to purchase a product which is not only legal in 15 states, but also needed for medical reasons by seriously ill patients.
If you’d like to provide some feedback to American Express regarding their alleged policy of not allowing customers to use their cards at medical marijuana dispensaries, you can do so here:




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