Illinois Medical Cannabis User Turned Away from Metro East Bank

Access to a bank should be a right for all citizens who have money that they want to protect, but cannabis users in Illinois unfortunately aren’t included in that category. One Illinois man who is also a legal cannabis user in the state was turned away from the Bank of Edwardsville in Granite City due to his affiliation with the cannabis industry as a legal patient.

Darren Steven Miller suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and terminal lung cancer, and is also reportedly one of the first medical cannabis patients to be registered in Metro East, Illinois. “I’m a legal patient of Illinois and have my right from my doctors and what I’ve been through to get access to this legal medicine,” Miller said.

On Monday, November 28, Miller went to the Bank of Edwardsville, but found that he was quickly told his business wasn’t welcome, and that he wasn’t welcome at the institution. “When I walked in the bank, he [the manager] pulled me aside and said because of my cannabis use that I could not have a signature card with their bank,” Miller noted about the encounter. “Are they going to check every other person at the bank to see if they’re a legal cannabis patient and stop doing business with them also?” There are an estimated 12,000 registered cannabis users in Illinois.

Miller doesn’t even work in the cannabis industry and was not depositing any cannabis-related money. Miller is the Treasurer of the Masonic Lodge in Granite City, and he was sent to conduct business on behalf of the Lodge. He taken aside by the manager because he listed his occupation as a “marijuana activist.”

The bank has responded to the issue, noting an earlier statement issued in 2015 saying that the Bank of Edwardsville is a “ . . . federally-regulated institution, and because of the disconnect between federal and state law and regulatory requirements, the bank will not engage in banking relationships with the medical marijuana industry at this time.” The financial institution has not addressed the issue further why Miller was turned away when his presence had nothing to do with the cannabis industry.