http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/altered_state/2014/01/colorado_marijuana_businesses_have_a_big_problem_banks_won_t_take_their.html
Afew years ago, a Boulder woman who owned one of Colorado’s first dispensaries ran into some troubles with her bank. As she later recounted, the bank told her the money she was depositing into her business account reeked of marijuana. The bank was willing to take her money, but she would have to do something about the smell. Maybe Febreze would help. Her bank, in other words, asked her to literally launder her money.Since then, the relationship between marijuana businesses and their banks has only become more fraught and complicated. Talk to anyone involved in Colorado’s marijuana industry—regulators, market players, law enforcement—and they’ll likely agree that the biggest obstacle to bringing marijuana out of the shadows is the industry’s inability to obtain basic banking services.The few Colorado marijuana operations still lucky enough to have bank accounts jealously guard the specifics for the protection of everyone involved, and reports of banks unceremoniously dropping pot clients are commonplace. The front desk at Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division is stocked with jumbo-sized money counters, since most marijuana businesses have no choice but to pay the tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees and taxes in cash.The situation has become so vexing that members of both parties from Colorado’s congressional delegation recently joined together to urge Treasury and Justice Department officials to do something about it.
the mega amounts of money customers would bring to the banks bottom line i would think they would Febreeze it their damn selves.
there must be something not revealed for them to not do business with what will move from ground floor to the penthouse.
he problem is that because marijuana is still classified by the federal government as a Schedule I narcotic, anyone who facilitates the cultivation or distribution of the drug, even in states where it’s legal, is in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. Banks that provide financial assistance are therefore risking prosecution as co-conspirators or aiders and abettors.Plus, by taking money from an industry that’s still illegal federally, a bank could be guilty under federal money laundering statutes—not an attractive outcome for an upstanding, publicly traded business.
and therein lies the conundrum, this should have been straightened out along with the bill passing there had to be talk prior to the legalization about this concern why did they not sure it up then?
For a while, some banks were willing to work with marijuana businesses, even if they didn’t like the smell of their cash. That changed in June 2011, however, when the DOJissued a stern memo threatening to prosecute on money laundering charges even those operations tangentially related to the marijuana industry.That led most banks to sever ties with the industry, and those that didn’t were extremely hush-hush about their involvement with marijuana growers and sellers. According to Michael Elliott, executive director of the Colorado-based Medical Marijuana Industry Group, those marijuana businesses that still have bank accounts try to keep multiple small accounts at different financial institutions.Having different bank accounts means you can spread the money around, which keeps your accounts from getting flagged for large cash infusions and gives you backups in case one or more of your accounts gets closed.
makes sense pass a law that requires you to break a law in order to engage in the law, that is right wing rationale
