Elizabeth Warren Wants to Handle Cannabis’ Cash-Only Crisis

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is fed up with banks’ unwillingness to work with the cannabis industry. The Massachusetts Democrat is leading the effort to provide sustainable and fair banking services for legal cannabis businesses. The cash-only model plagues the cannabis industry and puts cannabis business owners and employees at risk.

Warren and nine other senators, including Bernie Sanders, joined arms to send a letter to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which regulates businesses on a federal level. The senators called for a reasonable way for cannabis businesses to have access to banking institutions. “(In) these states, the majority of legal marijuana businesses, and businesses that provide services to them, are all but barred from participating in the financial system,” the letter reads, “As a result, many legal businesses are forced to operate in cash, which jeopardizes community safety, limits economic growth and greatly expands the opportunity for tax fraud.”

Last November, Warren’s home state of Massachusetts legalized recreational cannabis for adults over the age of 21. Massachusetts’ Governor Charlie Baker and state lawmakers issued a controversial last-minute change which delayed sales in Massachusetts for 18 months. Two years ago, the U.S. Department of the Treasury gave some banking institutions some leniency and the ability to do business with cannabis-related companies. According to Warren, only three percent of the nation’s 11,954 federally regulated banks do business with cannabis businesses. The vast majority of banking institutions want nothing to do with the cannabis industry.

Warren pointed out the hypocrisy of federal law and its relationship with the banking industry. “You make sure that people are really paying their taxes. You know that the money is not being diverted to some kind of criminal enterprise,” Warren recently stated. “And it’s just a plain old safety issue. You don’t want people walking in with guns and masks and saying, `Give me all your cash.“’

Twenty-eight states have legalized either medical or recreational cannabis, but most banks are still unwilling to work with cannabis businesses. Little can change, so long as cannabis is considered a Schedule 1 drug in the eyes of the federal government. Many men and women in the cannabis industry are applauding Warren’s no-nonsense approach to push for fair banking for cannabis businesses.