Congressmember Dan Goldman joined his Oregon colleague Earl Blumenauer in introducing the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which ensures that legal cannabis businesses would be able to access banking and financial services.
Currently, many legal weed businesses are prohibited from using traditional banking systems, opening the door to potential tax evasion and increasing the risk of being targeted by criminal activity.
The SAFE Banking Act prevents banks from being penalized for engaging with bud businesses, thereby “promoting a safer banking environment and enhancing access to financial services.” The act also includes provisions for “related hemp businesses,” facilitating their integration into the mainstream banking system.
“As the legal cannabis industry blossoms and we move to tax and regulate marijuana, we must give businesses access to our regulated banking system,” Goldman said. “It is impossible to adequately regulate this fledgling industry if cannabis businesses are forced to rely on all-cash transactions. This commonsense legislation is a step in the right direction that will bring the cannabis industry out of the shadows entirely.”
The SAFE Banking Act would prevent federal banking regulators from prohibiting, penalizing or discouraging a bank from providing financial services to a legitimate, state-sanctioned and regulated cannabis business or associated business (such as a lawyer or landlord providing services to a legal cannabis business).
The act would also ban federal banking regulators from taking any action on a loan to an owner or operator of a cannabis-related business.
Currently, since pot is not decriminalized nationally, legal cannabis shops in New York can face issues with basic services beyond banking. For example, even finding software for touch screens that customers use to buy their products can be challenging.
In May, Goldman urged the Biden administration grant clemency to individuals incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana offenses. Goldman also co-sponsored the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which would federally decriminalize weed and require resentencing and expungement of prior marijuana convictions, including for juvenile offenders.
Congressmember Dan Goldman joined his Oregon colleague Earl Blumenauer in introducing the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which ensures that legal cannabis businesses would… Read More
