Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:


After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

US: Oregon joins 19 states in calling for cannabis banking clarity

Andy Giegerich

Portland Business Journal

Tuesday 16 Jan 2018

Oregon's attorney general has joined a group of top law enforcement officials looking for clarity on interstate banking rules related to cannabis sales.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum wants Congress "to advance legislation allowing states with legalized medical or recreational marijuana to bring that commerce into the banking system." Cannabis-related businesses in Oregon and other states where marijuana is legal for either recreational or medicinal uses have long struggled with ways to bank their revenue.

Rosenblum and 19 other attorneys general sent Congress a letter asking for a legal "safe harbor" for banks that work with marijuana businesses. Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley is a co-sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, that looks to protect banks that provide such services.

“Oregon’s legal marijuana industry is thriving under the carefully considered state regulatory requirements we have put in place," Rosenblum said in a release.

"However, in the years we have had medical marijuana, and now recreational marijuana, these businesses have been forced to hide in the dark shadows of the banking industry. It is both dangerous and short-sighted to inhibit banks from accepting money from law-abiding businesses in states with legal medical or recreational marijuana."

The request comes just after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that paved the way for states like Oregon and Washington to establish what have been flourishing legal marijuana industries. Sessions essentially decreed that it would be up to federal prosecutors in Oregon, Washington and other states where marijuana is legal to decide how aggressively they want to enforce federal marijuana laws.

The rescission of that policy added more questions over the role banks can play in serving state-licensed marijuana businesses

Attorneys general from Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington joined Rosenblum.

https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2018/01/16/oregon-joins-19-states-in-calling-for-cannabis.html

 

 

 

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back. 




This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!