US House passes bill giving pot businesses access to banking

[FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2019, file photo, marijuana grows at an indoor cannabis farm in Gardena, Calif. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, that would grant legal marijuana businesses access to banking, a measure that would clear up a longstanding headache for the industry. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By GENE JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEP. 25, 2019 4:33 PM

U.S. House bill giving pot business access to banking and making it harder to detect theft, tax evasion and money laundering.

Supporters of the banking bill, including Democratic Reps. Denny Heck of Washington and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, characterized it as a public safety measure. In urging lawmakers to vote yes, Heck relayed the story of a 24-year-old Marine veteran, Travis Mason, who was shot and killed during a robbery of a dispensary in suburban Denver in 2016.

“Because the federal law did not allow for that business to be banked, to be within the guardrails of the financial system, an evil person walked in that night and shot Travis dead,” Heck said. “That does not have to happen. It is not hypothetical.”

Rob Nichols, president of the American Bankers Association, called the vote “a significant step forward for public safety, transparency and common sense.”

“By helping to provide clarity for the financial sector in those states where cannabis is legal, this bill will help banks meet the needs of their communities while reducing cash-motivated crimes, increasing the efficiency of tax collections and improving the cannabis industry’s financial accountability,” he said.

Opponents said it would facilitate the spread of marijuana. In a written statement, Kevin Sabet of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, noted that hundreds of people have been sickened and several have died after using marijuana vaping products.

“Surely this is not the time to reward Big Marijuana with investment opportunities,” Sabet said.

“Granting this industry access to banks will bring billions of dollars of institutional investment from the titans of addiction and vastly expand the harms we are already witnessing.”
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Gene Johnson is a member of the AP’s marijuana beat team and can be followed at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Follow AP’s complete marijuana coverage: https://apnews.com/Marijuana

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