Washington State\u2019s treasurer is calling on counterparts in other states to pressure Congress to take action on pending cannabis banking reform legislation, writing in an open letter to colleagues that recent violence at mostly cash-only marijuana retailers\u2014including a spate of deadly robberies in Washington this month\u2014has made the matter a pressing public safety concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can no longer have this industry without access to banking when billions of dollars are changing hands in cash each year,\u201d wrote Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti (D) in the letter, published Thursday on the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST) website. \u201cIt\u2019s just not safe to have this financial volume in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s legal cannabis industry, which now does $1.4 billion in business annually, has experienced \u201cdaily armed robberies\u201d since the beginning of this year, Pelliciotti noted. Following a NAST conference last month at which officials discussed obstacles to the marijuana industry caused by federal banking laws<\/a>, Washington \u201csaw 3 deaths in 4 days from cannabis retailer robberies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese deaths are even more tragic because they\u2019re preventable,\u201d Pelliciotti wrote in the letter<\/a>. \u201cAs treasurers, we each have a unique and respected role to play in addressing this urgent public safety matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Treasurer Pellicciotti urges other state treasurers to become #SAFEBankingAct<\/a> advocates in the weeks ahead: https:\/\/t.co\/O5IocaOnTR<\/a> \u201cIt is not every day that state treasurers are at the forefront of such an urgent public safety issue, but we must be today.\u201d #cannabis<\/a> #banking<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/rqlTwkb6jh<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 WA State Treasurer (@WaTreasurer) March 31, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Pellicciotti is among a growing chorus of state officials and lawmakers urging Congress\u2014and the U.S. Senate specifically\u2014to move on pending legislation that would remove federal banking restrictions that currently make it onerous for banks to service the cannabis industry. Supporters of reform argue that cash-laden businesses are opportune targets for crime and cause logistical and accounting headaches for both companies and the state agencies that interact with them.<\/p>\n \u201cA decade of congressional dithering is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In an interview with Marijuana Moment last month<\/a>, Colorado Treasurer Dave Young (D), another vocal supporter of federal banking reform, said cannabis businesses in his state \u201chave a hard time finding an armored car service that will actually take them up on a contract and move the money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s consistent across the country,\u201d Young added, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s the inconsistency that businesses find themselves in that\u2019s the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Washington and Colorado have comparatively mature marijuana markets and boast billion-dollar cannabis industries. Voters in both states were the first in the U.S. to legalize cannabis for adult use in 2012.<\/p>\n Over nearly a decade of operation, some cannabis businesses have managed to find limited, comparatively expensive banking services through credit unions or creative accounting. Many, however, still operate solely in cash.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some banks are willing to take risks\u2014credit unions or whatever\u2014to take some of these deposits, but the fee that they have to pay and the [suspicious activity reports] that they have to do\u2014and really what they can and can\u2019t do with the money\u2014is pretty limited,\u201d Young said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got large amounts of cash moving around. And so you\u2019ve got robberies, you\u2019ve got violence.\u201d<\/p>\n In the wake of the deadly Washington cannabis robberies, regulators at the state\u2019s Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB)\u00a0held a virtual roundtable on banking issues this week<\/a>, drawing lawmakers, advocates and representatives of cannabis businesses\u2014including the World of Weed dispensary in Tacoma, where an employee was recently killed in a robbery.<\/p>\n David Postman, LCB\u2019s chair, said at the event that \u201cwe\u2019re running up against a wall from Congress that says, \u2018No, you can\u2019t do it all\u2014we\u2019re not going to let you do that\u2014even though your voters want to do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to keep hitting on that really hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pellicciotti, who also spoke at the event, said that \u201ca decade of congressional dithering is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters want to see federal lawmakers pass the bipartisan Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act from U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), which Pellicciotti referenced repeatedly in his letter to other state treasurers.<\/p>\n The SAFE Banking Act was recently included in the House version of a separate manufacturing and innovation bill<\/a>, the America COMPETES Act, although the Senate\u2019s version of the legislation does not include the cannabis banking reforms. The measure is now headed to a bicameral conference committee where members will negotiate which provisions to include in a final bill to send to the president.<\/p>\n In a separate Rules Committee hearing in February, Perlmutter said he planned to offer the SAFE Banking Act as an amendment<\/a> to \u201cevery single bill I possibly can until it\u2019s passed.\u201d He\u2019s repeatedly\u00a0stressed that he\u2019s not wait for the Senate to take up the SAFE Act as standalone bill, even if that\u2019d be the preferred pathway for the reform.<\/p>\n The representative successfully added the language to House-passed COVID relief packages twice<\/a>, though they didn\u2019t make it into the final legislation.\u00a0And he inserted the bill language into the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)\u2014but it was again excluded following bicameral negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his letter to colleagues, Pellicciotti subtly called out the Senate for failing to include the cannabis banking reforms in its version of the COMPETES Act.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. House of Representatives has passed the SAFE Banking Act six times. I remain hopeful that the SAFE Banking Act can finally pass the Senate this year with our collective efforts,\u201d he wrote. \u201cState treasurers are in a unique position as advisors to our senators on these financial needs. I hope you engage your senators at this critical time as a SAFE Banking advocate in the weeks ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n GOP Cannabis Caucus Leader Explains Why He Opposes Marijuana Legalization Bill Getting House Vote (Op-Ed)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a><\/p>\n The post Washington Treasurer Urges Colleagues In Other States To Pressure Congress To Pass Marijuana Banking Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Washington State\u2019s treasurer is calling on counterparts in other states to pressure Congress to take action on pending cannabis banking reform legislation, writing in an open letter to colleagues that recent violence at mostly cash-only marijuana retailers\u2014including a spate of deadly robberies in Washington this month\u2014has made the matter aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54040"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54041,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54040\/revisions\/54041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Washington Treasurer Urges Colleagues In Other States To Pressure Congress To Pass Marijuana Banking Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"