Financial institution of Guam announced in a press release on Wednesday that the launch of “Hashish Banking” will give it a “platform [to allow] hashish purchasers the power to share information from their day-to-day enterprise actions, similar to gross sales, stock and required licensing documentation.”
In keeping with The Guam Day by day Submit, “Hashish Banking” will make the establishment the primary within the area “to serve ‘all tiers’ of cannabis-related companies, or CRBs.”
“It has all the time been the mission of our founder to serve the underserved and to offer entry to secure and safe banking companies to our communities. This now contains our cannabis-related companies. As your companion in progress, we’re dedicated to extending our experience as trusted monetary advisers to this new {industry} and to permit our native cannabis-related companies who comply with the method and play by the principles, a good likelihood to succeed,” Financial institution of Guam President and CEO Joaquin L.G. Cook dinner stated within the press launch, as quoted by the Guam Day by day Submit.
Per the outlet, Financial institution of Guam will start this month to “provide deposit and lending companies to CRBs in Guam and Saipan legally licensed to interact.” These CRBs are “organizations or companies that develop, course of, dispense, administer or derive earnings from promoting marijuana merchandise,” according to the Daily Post, which supplied the next breakdown of the qualifying companies:
“(Tier 1) Direct Hashish-Associated Companies: Companies licensed to the touch the plant immediately. Sorts of direct CRBs embody grownup use/medical use, retail, processing, cultivation, dispensaries, seed producers, testing, supply and consumption lounges. (Tier 2) Oblique Hashish-Associated Companies: Consists of industry-specific skilled companies. Sorts of oblique CRBs embody operations help similar to attorneys and accountants, landlords, hydroponic suppliers, packaging suppliers, supply gadget suppliers, safety corporations, hashish consultants, marijuana testing services, employment/payroll suppliers and hashish software program suppliers. (Tier 3) Hemp-Associated Companies: Companies licensed by the USA Division of Agriculture or state regulatory company to develop, check, or in any other case put together hemp. (Tier 3) Cannabidiol Companies: Companies engaged within the manufacturing or sale of hemp-derived cannabinoids supposed for human or animal consumption, as regulated by the Meals and Drug Administration.”
Guam legalized leisure hashish in 2019 with the “Guam Hashish Industries Act,” which, per NORML, “legalizes the non-public possession of marijuana by adults, and establishes laws governing the plant’s business manufacturing and retail sale.”
NORML continued: “The regulation permits these age 21 or older to legally possess and switch as much as one ounce of marijuana flower and/or eight grams of concentrated hashish. The measure, which took instant impact, additionally permits adults to privately domesticate as much as six hashish vegetation (not more than three mature) in an ‘enclosed, locked house.’ Public consumption of hashish will stay a violation of regulation. The Act creates a brand new regulatory board to draft guidelines governing the plant’s business manufacturing and retail sale. The board has a one-year timeline to undertake guidelines vital to allow for the operation of licensed hashish institutions.”
Guam’s regulated hashish market has been sluggish to take form, nevertheless. In 2022, it was reported that nobody had utilized for a hashish retail license but.
In keeping with the Guam Day by day Submit, the “hashish {industry} has but to take off on Guam as there have been varied roadblocks, together with allowing points which have affected a minimum of one potential cultivator.”
The outlet stated that Guam continues to be awaiting clearance on an important testing laboratory.
“A testing laboratory is integral to creating a business hashish {industry} on Guam. No hashish or hashish merchandise could be offered with out being examined for efficiency and security. Primarily, and not using a testing laboratory, there could be no {industry} on the island underneath the present laws,” the outlet defined.
In 2021, Guam’s governor, Lou Leon Guerrero, said that the territory had reached an settlement with a U.S.-based firm known as Metrc to supervise the hashish regulatory methods. Guerrero’s workplace stated on the time that Metrc’s “system combines superior software program, radio-frequency identification (RFID), a devoted buyer help group, and a safe database to trace hashish from progress, harvest and processing, to testing, transport, and sale,” and that the corporate “holds unique authorities contracts in varied areas of the USA, together with Alaska, California, and Washington, D.C.”
“During the last decade, now we have seen substantial proof that hashish has medicinal advantages. With the ultimate evaluation by our Hashish Management Board on the principles and laws for the {industry}, we will extra effectively management leisure use and guarantee secure and controlled merchandise,” Guerrero stated on the time. “The hashish {industry} will profit our group by funding expanded public companies in well being and public security, and offering different remedy and rehabilitation for individuals who want it.”