Greater than two months after the Home of Representatives handed the SAFE Banking Act but once more, stress is mounting on the U.S. Senate to lastly take up the laws that might enable monetary establishments to supply companies to hashish companies.
The newest spherical of lobbying got here final week from a pair of state treasurers: Colorado’s Dave Younger and Washington’s Mike Pellicciotti.
The 2 Democratic officers took to Twitter on Friday to sound the alarm on the risks posed to hashish dispensaries within the absence of the reform.
In Washington state, a spate of robberies of hashish shops has underscored how susceptible such institutions are as a result of the amount of money readily available.
“Colorado weed shops, together with different states with authorized hashish companies, are headed into their busiest week of the 12 months,” Younger tweeted, alluding to this week’s 4/20 festivities, “but these companies should dangerously function in a cash-based world. Let’s cross the #SAFEBankingAct this #fourtwenty.”
Pellicciotti’s official account, in the meantime, shared a news story from final week detailing an armed theft of a hashish store that resulted in a chase with Washington State Patrol.
“One other alarming instance of why #Congress must cross the #SAFEBankingACT and permit entry banking for a safer #hashish retail business,” the tweet from Pellicciotti’s account said.
Pellicciotti went to Washington, D.C. final month to satisfy with members of his state’s Congressional delegation, and to convey the urgency surrounding the invoice.
Final month, the Seattle Occasions reported that there had been almost 70 armed robberies of hashish outlets within the state this 12 months, doubling the totals for all of final 12 months and 2020.
“You rob the locations the place the money is,” Pellicciotti stated after his lobbying journey, as quoted by native tv station KING5. “These robberies are tragic. However these robberies are additionally preventable.”
”You possibly can’t have a $1.4 billion a 12 months transaction going down within the state of Washington in money and never have the chance of those sort of robberies … It’s time,” added Pellicciotti.
Pellicciotti wasn’t the one one selling the invoice on Capitol Hill. The Hill reported that there was “an in-person lobbying blitz” final month involving “greater than 20 chief executives of high hashish firms [who] urged lawmakers in each events to cross the SAFE Banking Act.”
The Home of Representatives handed the SAFE Banking Act in February.
If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of the Home additionally handed the invoice final 12 months.
Actually, February’s passage marked the sixth time that the SAFE Banking Act gained approval within the Home because it was initially launched in 2013 by Colorado Consultant Ed Perlmutter.
“Hashish-related companies—huge and small—and their workers are in determined want of entry to the banking system and entry to capital with a purpose to function in an environment friendly, protected method and compete within the rising world hashish market,” Perlmutter stated in a press release following the newest passage.
With about six months to go till the midterm elections, the onus is on Democrats within the Senate to get the 2 main items of federal hashish reform over the end line.
Along with the SAFE Banking Act, the Democratic-led Home additionally accredited the Marijuana Alternative, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act at the start of the month, a invoice that might finish the federal prohibition on hashish.
The Democratic management within the Senate intends to introduce its personal model of a legalization invoice, often called the Hashish Administration and Alternative Act, however that laws possible gained’t be unveiled till someday this summer season.
Final week, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer stated that the Senate’s legalization invoice shall be launched forward of the Congressional recess in August. Schumer had beforehand stated that the measure can be launched by the tip of this month.