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Get ready to pay at a Las Vegas marijuana dispensary, and the substance’s illicit status at the federal level becomes quickly apparent.
Cash, yes, please. Debit card, maybe. Credit card, no cannabis for you.
Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, dispensaries, operating legally in Nevada since 2015, cannot do business with national banks.
That has made cash king in the marijuana industry at every level, down to the customer.
Those without greenbacks are directed to the ATM present in most dispensaries to make a cash withdrawal. And when customers pay with a debit card, many shops process a bank transfer through a third party with an extra fee.
But industry officials hope all the financial hoop-jumping comes to an end with a piece of proposed federal legislation called the SAFER Banking Act.
The bill has collected allies from both sides of the aisle, from U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., to Republican President-elect Donald Trump. It would give banks working with dispensaries legal protection, potentially reducing prices downstream.
Earlier versions of the bill date to 2013, and Brandon Wiegand, the chief operating officer of Jardin Premium Cannabis Dispensary and president of the Nevada Cannabis Association, has spent a decade waiting for such legislation to become law.
“It’s something that the industry desperately needs,” Wiegand said. “We’re trying to run a business just like anyone else. We sat in this purgatory long enough, and I think it’s time to make some progress and open the avenues for banking and finance to the industry.”
In the 24 states where recreational marijuana is legal, major national banks have avoided working with dispensaries. Wells Fargo, for instance, cited federal law in 2018 when it closed the account of a Florida political candidate who took money from the state’s medical marijuana industry.
Marijuana’s federal legal status means banks could be accused of money laundering if they’re found working with legitimate dispensaries, according to the American Bankers Association.
With many dispensaries dealing solely in cash, owners and workers fear they’re an easy target for robberies.
“There’s an incredible life, safety, human element to this,” Wiegand said.
The bill is “an important step that helps equalize the industry and make it safer,” he said.
Without access to major national banks, dispensaries have turned to local banks and credit unions. The Greater Nevada Credit Union promotes itself as a cannabis bank, facilitating debit card transactions while managing funds for dispensaries.
Riana Durrett, the director of UNLV’s Cannabis Policy Institute, said working with credit unions was more expensive than working with a national bank, an issue exacerbated by a lack of accounts to go around.
“Now, having a bank account doesn’t mean that it’s great. It’s expensive. It’s cumbersome. It’s very complex,” Wiegand said. “We don’t have access to a lot of the traditional financial services that would be offered.”
If savings from switching to a national bank get carried over to consumers, it might help reduce illegal cannabis sales, Durrett said.
About 20% of marijuana sales in Nevada are illegal, according to a 2024 state Cannabis Compliance Board study. Thirty percent of cannabis users surveyed said prices “definitely” impact their decision to buy on the black market.
But Durrett said combating illicit marijuana sales won’t be as simple as one policy.
“You’d still have high taxes, a lot of other regulatory costs and then we have a lot of areas where we ban cannabis sales from occurring, but people are still going to purchase in those areas,” she said. “We’re just inviting the illegal market in those spaces.”
Rosen, a co-sponsor of the marijuana banking bill for five years, said “outdated” federal laws were preventing Nevada’s cannabis industry from reaching its full potential.
“I helped introduce the bipartisan SAFER Banking Act to remove these obstacles for Nevada’s legally operating small businesses, and I’ll keep working to build support across party lines to pass it,” Rosen said in a statement.
The latest version of the bill has 36 co-sponsors in the Senate, five of them Republicans.
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee passed the bill with some bipartisan support last year, the first time it had done so.
But the bill stalled in the Senate, while a House version never made it to a vote.
Trump, however, could play a key role in getting the legislation through once he and the next Congress is seated in January.
Prompted by a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, in September that he’d work with Congress to pass safe banking reform.
Still, the legislation faces opposition from some Senate Republicans.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Democrats were on board but the GOP was “just not there when it comes time to sit down and vote.”
Incoming Senate Majority John Thune, R-S.D., joined a July letter with 24 other Republicans opposing the Biden administration downgrading marijuana from a Schedule One to Schedule Three drug.
Wiegand, nonetheless, said he was “cautiously optimistic” the bill would pass.
“We had two presidential candidates that were both in favor of cannabis legalization to varying degrees,” he said. “We’ve never been in a spot like that.”
[email protected] / 702-990-8923 / @Kyle_Chouinard
“}]] But industry officials hope all the financial hoop-jumping comes to an end with a piece of proposed federal legislation called the SAFER Banking Act. The bill has collected allies from both sides of the aisle … Read More
