Measure Would Allow Banks to Provide Services to Cannabis Businesses

A Congressional panel has voted to increase cannabis businesses’ ability to access banks. Many banking establishments are reluctant to do business with cannabis operations, and as a result of the cash-only nature of the cannabis industry, dispensaries and collectives have been a large target for robberies.

Today though, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment, in a 16-14 vote, to prevent the Treasury Department from punishing banks that open accounts for state-legal cannabis businesses.

The initiative will be attached to the 2017 Financial Services and Government Appropriations Act, which will be hitting the Senate floor soon.

“It makes no sense to have bags of cash, and it’s an invitation to organized crime, an invitation to theft, and invitation to tax evasion,” amendment sponsor Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said.

The Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill also covers funding for Washington, D.C., and has historically been used to prevent the city from spending its own money to legalize tax and regulate cannabis sales. However, the Senate panel’s legislation contains no such prohibition, as was also the case with the version of the bill the committee approved last year. However, House-passed language blocking the city from moving forward was included in the final Fiscal Year 2016 spending package enacted into law in December.

Thursday’s Senate committee action is just the latest in a series of recent Congressional votes in support of cannabis policy reform.

Last week, by a margin of 18-11, the same panel approved an amendment to protect doctors who recommend medical cannabis and patients who use it in accordance with state laws.

In April, the committee approved an amendment to increase military veterans’ access to medical cannabis through the Department of Veterans Affairs by a vote of 20-10. The legislation including the veterans provision was then approved by the full Senate last month, and on the same day the House passed similar language.