A coalition of state marijuana associations is imploring Senate leaders to pass a bipartisan cannabis banking bill “without further delay.”
The American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH)—along with trade groups representing marijuana businesses in 16 states plus Washington, D.C.—sent a letter about the need for the reform to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) on Friday.
But while the organizations are pressing the committee to urgently act on the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, the letter comes one day after a cannabis lobbyist reported that Brown told him there will be no vote in his panel next week, meaning it will not advance during the summer session. After the end of this month, senators won’t reconvene again until September.
In any case, ATACH and the state associations say that the status quo that leaves many marijuana businesses without access to banks and other traditional financial services is untenable, and the “public health and safety consequences are dire.”
“Many cannabis state licensed cannabis retailers are forced to do business in all cash and cannabis businesses are being targeted for violent robbery,” they wrote. “The latter examples have turned violent with
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