Marijuana Retailers Say Bank Rules Threaten Safety, Hurt Businesses
Thursday, October 22, 2015
“We just want to be considered the same as any other business,” Meghan Walstatter, owner of Pure Green Dispensary in Portland, told GoLocal. “We want to have the same access to banking and the same options that any other business has.”
Currently, most banks refuse to serve marijuana businesses because they fear a federal crackdown could cause them to lose their FDIC protection, forcing them to close or exposing them to prosecution under federal anti-drug laws. Banks that do decide to do business with cannabis companies are subject to strict federal regulations that are designed to protect the financial system from dealing with criminals.
“This is one of the biggest problems we’re facing,” Skylar McKinley, deputy director of marijuana coordination for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper told GoLocal. Colorado was one of the first states to legalize marijuana and has struggled to come up with a banking system to serve its newest industry.
“The regulations on marijuana businesses are probably stricter than regulations on any other industry,” McKinley said. “What we run into as a result is that the big banks like Chase are not doing this, because they do not want to risk their other holdings. Smaller banks that would be willing to take on the risk just don’t have the staff or the manpower needed to deal with those regulations.”
Hurting Businesses
Because of the regulations, many marijuana businesses are forced to operate as cash-only businesses, according to Karen Sprague, owner of the CO2 Company, which produces marijuana extracts for dispensaries in Oregon.
“We work with nearly two hundred licensed dispensaries across Oregon, and most of them pay in cash,” Sprague said. “It’s a bookkeeping nightmare. I’ve been a small business owner for more than 25 years, and I have never seen anything like it. We just want to be treated like everyone else.”
Walstatter said that the limit on banking restrictions are an inconvenience not just to business owners, but to customers as well.
“It’s really hard to pay employees or pay bills without a bank account and to have to do that in cash,” Walstatter said. “Cash is becoming less and less used these days. Everything is plastic. We have to have an ATM in our store in case anyone doesn’t have any cash. It complicates things.”
Safety Concerns
Sprague said that on top of business concerns, the regulations effectively force dispensaries and other marijuana businesses to become cash-only businesses, which causes safety concerns. “Working with so much cash puts the safety of our sales and delivery staff at risk,” Sprague said.
McKinley agreed, though he noted that Colorado has yet to see any major violent crimes committed against marijuana businesses.
“This is a huge public safety issue,” McKinley said. “However you feel about marijuana legalization, it’s happening, and we have to work to make sure we don’t open these businesses up to violent crime, robberies, that kind of thing.”
“It’s a tough balance,” Walstatter said. “We want to be safe and our employees to be safe, but there’s a trade-off. How many stores have to have an armed guard inside? I don’t want customers not to feel safe in my store.”
“This Will Have to Come from Congress”
McKinley, with Colorado’s marijuana coordination program, said that any solution on this issue will have to come from the federal government.
“We’ve gone through pretty much every solution that we as a state can figure out,” McKinley said, including attempts to open a credit union fully devoted to the marijuana industry, which were shut down by federal regulators. “I don’t see the Federal Reserve loosening up at all, so this will have to come from Congress.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D), who introduced a bill designed to change banking regulations along with Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley, said he was glad to see Oregon’s marijuana community fighting for their rights.
“I’m thrilled to see the emerging Oregon cannabis industry engaging their political voice in DC,” said Congressman Blumenauer. “These are the people lawmakers need to hear from to understand first-hand the opportunity this industry represents in creating jobs and generating tax revenue. Most importantly, the cannabis industry will build a safer regulated system around marijuana than the status quo of prohibition and a resulting black market. We need the federal government to get out of the way and let these businesses grow – and compete – in accordance with state law. We can start by taxing them fairly and allowing them to have bank accounts like all other businesses.”
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