Cannabis News of Note for the Week:
MJ Biz Daily: US cannabis firms could gain from Canadian Securities Exchange plan
The Motley Fool: This Will Be a Big Test for the Cannabis Industry
Politico Pro Cannabis: Interstate Commerce May Pose Banking Complications (paywalled newsletter, full text below)
MJ Biz Daily: Paychex ceasing direct deposits, other services to cannabis firms
Green Market Report: Exit of Paychex a Headache for Hundreds of Operators
MJ Biz Daily: As marijuana break-ins skyrocket in California, business owners take action
MJ Biz Magazine: What Law Enforcement Wants You to Know
Cannabis Reports of Note for the Week:
National Trends in Past-Year Marijuana Use among Veterans in the United States, 2013-2019
Politico Pro Cannabis: INTERSTATE COMMERCE MAY POSE BANKING COMPLICATIONS — Due to federal illegality, a lot of policy possibilities in cannabis are still purely theoretical — and one of the potential problems looming before the industry is interstate commerce.
Several West Coast state legislatures have already passed or are considering bills that would allow state governments to enter into interstate compacts with other legal cannabis states for interstate commerce. Many of those have clauses that require permission from the federal government for commerce to commence.
If interstate cannabis commerce began while federal prohibition remained in place, some experts believe it could pose complications for banking services.
Peter Su, a senior vice president at Green Check Verified — a consulting and technology company serving the cannabis industry —explains that FinCEN guidance is based on the Cole Memo. The Cole memo, which was issued in 2013 and then repealed by the Trump administration in 2018, had language that ensured cannabis wouldn’t cross state lines.
Su points out that current FinCEN guidance says banks would need to flag if any interstate commerce occurs — but does not say if those banks need to shut down bank accounts because of that, or if they just need to keep track of it occurring.
“I do think certain banks will say, ‘Well, no, we can’t have you doing that,’” Su said. “In lieu of further guidance, I can see it as being very disruptive.”
Su adds, though, that there will also be banks that will be willing to test the limits of the FinCEN guidance and see if they will be penalized for serving companies that participate in interstate commerce. While the banking sector works through that, cannabis businesses may be forced to choose between shipping their products out of state and having banking services.
“It’s a weird catch-22,” he said.