Banking For Cannabis Business-Owners

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by Emily Jiannetto

There has been a dramatic rise in violent crimes, such as shootings and robberies at cannabis dispensaries all over the country; officials say this is likely due to the inordinate amounts of cash that owners are forced to keep on the premises. Businesses that sell marijuana find it exceedingly hard to find willing banks due to federal laws (Fertig). This of course has caused disastrous consequences, and dozens of people have lost their lives during robberies, such as Brian Garcia of Los Angeles, Joshua Chase of Oakanna, Oklahoma, and Jordan Brown of Tacoma, Washington (Fertig).

Both the American Bankers Association and many Democratic senators are pushing to allow “cannabis companies” to take out business loans and hold their money in banks, which would alleviate the crime waves and save some lives (Fertig). This is known as the SAFE Banking Act. Legalizing cannabis at the federal level would also help this issue, but, this of course has been met with pushback in the House and Senate.

Copyrighted Article: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/10/cannabis-crime-wave-banking-capitol-hill-00030330

By Natalie Fertig

Images: “Money” by superstrikertwo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

“Marijuana / Medical Marijuana Dispensary / Medical Marijuana Collective” by Neon Tommy is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.