The effort to get banking access for legal cannabis businesses seems to have lost the wind in its sails for a moment, and while we wait for a new breeze in Congress, a wave of crime is targeting the legal cannabis industry\u2019s fat stacks of cash.<\/p>\n
Over the past few months, we\u2019ve seen cannabis operators who police treated like criminals for 20 years being targeted by\u00a0actual<\/em>\u00a0criminals. In December, one dispensary in San Diego County\u00a0reported losing over $300,000 in cannabis products<\/a>\u00a0overnight. In Washington state, things have been getting so bad lately that the state removed the online map of cannabis permit holders out of fear that thieves were using it to find targets. There is an ongoing\u00a0manhunt in Oklahoma<\/a>\u00a0for some dispensary parking lot stickup men, while another\u00a0man was shot<\/a>\u00a0leaving an Oklahoma City dispensary on Dec. 31. Meanwhile, the suspect who\u00a0robbed a Washington dispensary<\/a>\u00a0last Saturday is still at large. Keep in mind that these examples are merely a drop in the bucket of cannabis-related crime that has occurred in recent months.<\/p>\n So now that this cannabis crime wave is evident, who do we blame? Obviously, it\u2019s worth blaming the people actually conducting the crimes, but who is creating the situation that allows them to prosper? There\u2019s one easy answer: Senate Republicans, and namely, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell himself.<\/p>\n For years, state-legal cannabis dispensaries have been complaining that, due to federal prohibition, they\u2019re forced to conduct business in cash. In 2019, it looked like Congress might finally fix the problem. In September, the House of Representatives\u00a0passed the SAFE Banking Act<\/a>, which would allow legal cannabis business to access federally backed banking services, with a vote of 321-103.<\/p>\n It was a huge moment for a bill that had failed to pass for the six previous years.\u00a0The Hill<\/a>\u00a0even called it one of the top moments of the year for cannabis.<\/p>\n Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado, is one of the bill\u2019s cosponsors. At the time, he said the SAFE Banking Act would \u201cgo a long way in getting cash off our streets and providing certainty so financial institutions can work with cannabis businesses and employees.\u201d<\/p>\n Perlmutter also said he was looking forward to working with \u201cSenate Banking Committee Chairman [Mike] Crapo, Ranking Member [Sherrod] Brown and the entire Senate as they take up this important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t happen. The bill was dead on arrival, partially thanks to McConnell\u2019s\u00a0apparent oath<\/a>\u00a0to not hear debate on any cannabis legislation that doesn\u2019t have anything to do with benefitting Kentucky hemp farmers.<\/p>\n We asked the experts about who is to blame over the rise of cannabis-related crime, and about what should be done to fix it.<\/p>\n The\u00a0National Cannabis Industry Association<\/a>\u2019s Media Relations Director Morgan Fox told Cannabis Now that he thinks it is safe to say that lawmakers who delay passage of a workable cannabis banking bill must shoulder some of the responsibility for the ongoing public safety issues caused by lack of access to financial services.<\/p>\n But on the positive side, Fox did speak on the plan moving forward in the incremental steps that have been a hallmark of cannabis progress over the last two decades.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are hopeful that we can convince Sen. Crapo that\u00a0the 2% THC cap he suggested<\/a>\u00a0is a non-starter and work with him and other Senate Republicans to pass legislation this year,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n NORML\u2019s Executive Director Erik Altieri, however, took a firmer stance.<\/p>\n \u201cAny theft or injury that arises from cannabis businesses being forced to operate in a grey area is firmly on the shoulders of Senate Republican leadership,\u201d he told Cannabis Now. \u201cThey can talk a big game about supporting states\u2019 rights and small business, but their inaction puts an industry and lives at risk. They should be ashamed of their inaction and voters sure won\u2019t forget come November.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you buy your cannabis with cash or credit?<\/p>\n The post Can We Blame Senate Republicans for Dispensary Robberies Now?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The effort to get banking access for legal cannabis businesses seems to have lost the wind in its sails for a moment, and while we wait for a new breeze in Congress, a wave of crime is targeting the legal cannabis industry\u2019s fat stacks of cash. Over the past fewContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[290,50,380,1077,119,3764,2554,13037,7565],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40470,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40469\/revisions\/40470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Can We Blame Senate Republicans for Dispensary Robberies Now?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"