Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado last week called for the passage of the SAFE Banking Act, saying that the nation’s refusal to allow cannabis businesses access to traditional financial services is a “recipe for disaster.”
While addressing a virtual policy conference last Wednesday, Colorado Sen. Hickenlooper said that federal regulations that deny banking services to state-licensed cannabis businesses are a magnet for criminal activity and are contrary to the goals of marijuana legalization.
“If you really wanted to create an industry that’s dependent on gangs and cartels, make it all cash,” Hickenlooper said at the Regulating Cannabis event hosted by The Hill. “It’s almost like the system that is there now is oriented towards promoting things that we don’t want.”
Under current federal regulations, banks are subject to penalties under money laundering and other laws for servicing cannabis businesses, even those legal under state law, forcing the licensed cannabis industry to operate in a risky environment heavy in cash. Hickenlooper, who served as Colorado’s governor when the state’s voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, said the cash-only system that dominates the cannabis economy is “a recipe for disaster” and a “blueprint for catastrophe.”
“If you de-schedule it, banks can start banking it so it’s no longer a cash business,” Hickenlooper said. “There are multiple negative consequences of having it be a cash business. One is that businesses themselves can’t get loans.”
Colorado Supports the Pending SAFE Banking Act
Under pending federal legislation, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, federal banking regulators would be prohibited from penalizing banks that choose to serve cannabis firms doing business in compliance with state law. The legislation was initially introduced in the House in 2013 by Democratic Rep.