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Virginia Gov. Northam Signs Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization

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Illinois’ monthly adult-use cannabis sales surpassed $100 million for the first time in March.

The new sales record, reported by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), tops February sales by nearly $28.4 million. According to the report, Illinois sold nearly 2.3 million cannabis items worth roughly $109.1 million in March.

The report also indicates that about 69% of cannabis sales came from in-state residents, while 31% of sales came from out-of-state residents.

The state’s March cannabis sales were reflected in the day-to-day dispensary and wholesale operations in Illinois.

Cresco Labs, a vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator, saw a significant lift in sales in March across its wholesale customers and its 10 Sunnyside retail locations in Illinois, said Melissa Wagamon, regional president of Cresco Labs Illinois and Michigan locations.

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Wagamon

But what factors helped drive cannabis sales in March?

Wagamon said some macro trends in the world that she believes helped drive sales for the entire state.

“I think the stimulus [check] helped, and I think having a really lovely, warm and welcoming March, where people were excited to get outside after what was a pretty cold and dark February helped,” Wagamon said. “And then as people start to get vaccinated and feel safer going outside, we’re just starting to see more people out in the world.”

In addition to the stimulus checks and the state’s favorable weather conditions, William Butler, senior vice president of retail operations for Cresco Labs Sunnyside locations, expressed other factors that helped drive March dispensary sales, including the store’s overall depth of product, its sales promotions and wellness advisers.

Butler also agreed with Wagamon that he is starting to see more people getting outside and traveling again.

“I live just outside of Chicago, and as I like to say, the city is just starting to turn back on as far as folks coming from a destination standpoint that doesn’t live here,” Butler said. “But that’s just starting. So, as we start to see this growth [in sales], we see a lot of that come from our localized customers, which is terrific.”

The spike in sales affected the dispensary and wholesale side of things. Both sides had to make adjustments to ensure orders were getting filled, product was available, dispensaries were properly managing wholesale deliveries and more.

“It was a very busy March,” Wagamon said. “We are lucky in that we were able to fulfill orders for the most part, but when you have spikes in demand that are that high, we definitely felt it at the facility level. There were days that we averaged packing out about 25,000 to 30,000 units a day. We had one day where we shipped 45,000 units over 19 different orders, and that’s a lot of volume for our facility.”

And Wagamon said that wholesale employees were asked to work overtime to meet the demand.

“Ultimately, what her [Melissa’s] team does, helps fulfill our Sunnyside locations, which is just incredible,” Butler said. “So, that pack-out and those extra hours that went into the additional deliveries, part of that is a more Sunnyside.”

The dispensary is starting to get more deliveries than ever before, which is exciting as it means the dispensary is doing well with sales, and it’s also good to see a substantial amount of product available for customers, Butler said. 

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Butler

“I’m really proud of what we have done as a collaborative team to be able to manage the scheduling of these deliveries,” Butler said. “You can imagine the demand that this causes in the stores behind the scenes. So, we have to be very thoughtful, very methodical about how the deliveries are coming in and making sure we have the right amount of team members in place to be able to manage those deliveries when they do arrive, because the day they arrive, we want them available on the store menu, on the website available for purchase, we don’t want there to be a delay.” 

Butler said the dispensary and wholesale team’s strong collaboration is not something that was built overnight.

“Our sales overall have been very strong month over month, but March was exceptional,” Butler said. “So, I really viewed it as an extra building block. We weren’t scrambling to pull it together. We were able to really turn on our best practices and just take it to that next level.”

There has been a substantial increase in the number of in-store customers as well, Butler said.

“I would like to add that we still have very important measures in place when it comes to COVID prevention measures within all of our stores, for the safety of our team members and for the safety of our customers,” Butler said. “So, we’re proud that as we’ve had this influx of customers, that we still very much have very safe environments in order to prevent any issues from happening within the locations.”

In addition to having safety measures in place, Sunnyside dispensaries have also added additional team members and expanded store hours across multiple locations to keep up with the increase in customers.

And the March cannabis sales have been keeping the same momentum leading into April.

“It’s looking great thus far,” Butler said. “We are thrilled for 4/20 as that’s an incredible highlight of the year for us. I just love that we in the industry continue to make it even more important than special for our customer and for our team members in-store.”

The wholesale side is also having a strong April, and the team members are crossing their fingers that the weather continues to stay beautiful and that the momentum and excitement remains high as well, Wagamon said.

 

Cannabis Provides a Unique Opportunity to Promote Sustainable, Environmentally Friendly Business Practices

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Illinois’ monthly adult-use cannabis sales surpassed $100 million for the first time in March.

The new sales record, reported by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), tops February sales by nearly $28.4 million. According to the report, Illinois sold nearly 2.3 million cannabis items worth roughly $109.1 million in March.

The report also indicates that about 69% of cannabis sales came from in-state residents, while 31% of sales came from out-of-state residents.

The state’s March cannabis sales were reflected in the day-to-day dispensary and wholesale operations in Illinois.

Cresco Labs, a vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator, saw a significant lift in sales in March across its wholesale customers and its 10 Sunnyside retail locations in Illinois, said Melissa Wagamon, regional president of Cresco Labs Illinois and Michigan locations.

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Wagamon

But what factors helped drive cannabis sales in March?

Wagamon said some macro trends in the world that she believes helped drive sales for the entire state.

“I think the stimulus [check] helped, and I think having a really lovely, warm and welcoming March, where people were excited to get outside after what was a pretty cold and dark February helped,” Wagamon said. “And then as people start to get vaccinated and feel safer going outside, we’re just starting to see more people out in the world.”

In addition to the stimulus checks and the state’s favorable weather conditions, William Butler, senior vice president of retail operations for Cresco Labs Sunnyside locations, expressed other factors that helped drive March dispensary sales, including the store’s overall depth of product, its sales promotions and wellness advisers.

Butler also agreed with Wagamon that he is starting to see more people getting outside and traveling again.

“I live just outside of Chicago, and as I like to say, the city is just starting to turn back on as far as folks coming from a destination standpoint that doesn’t live here,” Butler said. “But that’s just starting. So, as we start to see this growth [in sales], we see a lot of that come from our localized customers, which is terrific.”

The spike in sales affected the dispensary and wholesale side of things. Both sides had to make adjustments to ensure orders were getting filled, product was available, dispensaries were properly managing wholesale deliveries and more.

“It was a very busy March,” Wagamon said. “We are lucky in that we were able to fulfill orders for the most part, but when you have spikes in demand that are that high, we definitely felt it at the facility level. There were days that we averaged packing out about 25,000 to 30,000 units a day. We had one day where we shipped 45,000 units over 19 different orders, and that’s a lot of volume for our facility.”

And Wagamon said that wholesale employees were asked to work overtime to meet the demand.

“Ultimately, what her [Melissa’s] team does, helps fulfill our Sunnyside locations, which is just incredible,” Butler said. “So, that pack-out and those extra hours that went into the additional deliveries, part of that is a more Sunnyside.”

The dispensary is starting to get more deliveries than ever before, which is exciting as it means the dispensary is doing well with sales, and it’s also good to see a substantial amount of product available for customers, Butler said. 

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Butler

“I’m really proud of what we have done as a collaborative team to be able to manage the scheduling of these deliveries,” Butler said. “You can imagine the demand that this causes in the stores behind the scenes. So, we have to be very thoughtful, very methodical about how the deliveries are coming in and making sure we have the right amount of team members in place to be able to manage those deliveries when they do arrive, because the day they arrive, we want them available on the store menu, on the website available for purchase, we don’t want there to be a delay.” 

Butler said the dispensary and wholesale team’s strong collaboration is not something that was built overnight.

“Our sales overall have been very strong month over month, but March was exceptional,” Butler said. “So, I really viewed it as an extra building block. We weren’t scrambling to pull it together. We were able to really turn on our best practices and just take it to that next level.”

There has been a substantial increase in the number of in-store customers as well, Butler said.

“I would like to add that we still have very important measures in place when it comes to COVID prevention measures within all of our stores, for the safety of our team members and for the safety of our customers,” Butler said. “So, we’re proud that as we’ve had this influx of customers, that we still very much have very safe environments in order to prevent any issues from happening within the locations.”

In addition to having safety measures in place, Sunnyside dispensaries have also added additional team members and expanded store hours across multiple locations to keep up with the increase in customers.

And the March cannabis sales have been keeping the same momentum leading into April.

“It’s looking great thus far,” Butler said. “We are thrilled for 4/20 as that’s an incredible highlight of the year for us. I just love that we in the industry continue to make it even more important than special for our customer and for our team members in-store.”

The wholesale side is also having a strong April, and the team members are crossing their fingers that the weather continues to stay beautiful and that the momentum and excitement remains high as well, Wagamon said.

 

Clean Green Farming is Good for Cannabis

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At Raw Garden, we have a ‘Farming First’ philosophy because we understand that the process of farming is the process of managing the plant’s life and the management of the land those plants grow on – this is when the plantgets its chance to thrive but requires that it is properly nurtured in order to provide resources such as high-quality terpenes and cannabinoids.

Our cannabis plants are sun-grown in Santa Barbara county soil just like other California crops. From the seed to the shelf, we are vertically integrated and maintain quality control at every step in the process. We grow our own seeds, farm and harvest our own plants, and process our own products while employing sustainable and regenerative farming practices – only organic and natural fertilizers, soil amendments and pest control methods are used on thefarm.

As farmers we have a responsibility to care for the land and the soil to ensure it is fertile and healthy well into the future. We take care of the soil and it takes care of our plants. The result is premium quality products that our customers love and trust. Our success and commitment to quality is proof that the economics of clean, sustainable operations are achievable. We’re farmers and scientists on a mission to make clean, high quality cannabis that is affordable and accessible.

A few of the sustainable agriculture practices we employ at Raw Garden include:

The Clean Green Certified logo

Clean Green Certification – Since our inception, we have been certified and licensed members of Clean Green, the #1 globally-recognized organic and sustainable cannabis certification program. The program was created in 2004 as a way to standardize legal cannabis products and the result was a program to help farms and brands obtain organic-like certification based on the USDA National Organic program. Clean Green-certified growers and processors regularly win awards for their high-quality products, including our award-winning extracts.

Water Conservation – Our farm team waters at the right time of day to reduce evaporative water loss; we also use drip irrigation and mulch to reduce water waste and runoff. Last year, we used about 8,000 gallons of water per acre on average, which is significantly less than standard outdoor grown crops.

Natural Fertilizer and Pest Control – We apply only organic fertilizers and foliar feeds and we spray only organic pathogen-free inoculants to keep our plants healthy and disease-free, which consistently results in high yields. To naturally deter pests, we recruit beneficial predatory insects like ladybugs and parasitic wasps, in addition to botanical oils and diatomaceous earth.

Precision Agriculture (PA) and Site-Specific Crop Management (SSCM) – We utilize technology to manage crops and increase farm efficiency, such as machine learning for fertilizer optimization and digital sensors in the field to monitor crops.

Author Khalid-Al Naser next at Raw Garden’s farm.
Image by Brian Walker

Soil Health and Terroir – Like grapes for wine, cannabis plants grown in the soil have terroir that affects the flower’s qualities, characteristics, terpene profile, aroma and taste, based on temperature, climate, soil composition and topography, as well as other environmental influences. Micro-climates matter – the same strain of cannabis grown along the coast likely has a different taste and potency than one grown inland. We grow in Santa Barbara wine country for the combination of fertile soil, hot sun, and cool nights which yield an incredibly diverse, potent and flavorful crop of cannabis flowers. Between growing seasons, we employ regenerative agriculture by planting cover crops including oat, beans, peas and buckwheat to add nitrogen and organic matter naturally back in the soil. This method of cover crops also helps reduce pests and soil-borne diseases in preparation for the next growing season. We know that an ideal environment in combination with healthy soil and good land management results in healthier, more vigorous plants, which translates to higher-quality products.

As farmers, it is our responsibility to care of the land with good management decisions today so that we grow the best quality products while better preserving the land for the future. It takes careful planning, knowledge of the land, a commitment to sustainable practices and a desire to put farming first.

Average Daily Medical Cannabis Sales Approach $900,000 in Arkansas

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Illinois’ monthly adult-use cannabis sales surpassed $100 million for the first time in March.

The new sales record, reported by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), tops February sales by nearly $28.4 million. According to the report, Illinois sold nearly 2.3 million cannabis items worth roughly $109.1 million in March.

The report also indicates that about 69% of cannabis sales came from in-state residents, while 31% of sales came from out-of-state residents.

The state’s March cannabis sales were reflected in the day-to-day dispensary and wholesale operations in Illinois.

Cresco Labs, a vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator, saw a significant lift in sales in March across its wholesale customers and its 10 Sunnyside retail locations in Illinois, said Melissa Wagamon, regional president of Cresco Labs Illinois and Michigan locations.

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Wagamon

But what factors helped drive cannabis sales in March?

Wagamon said some macro trends in the world that she believes helped drive sales for the entire state.

“I think the stimulus [check] helped, and I think having a really lovely, warm and welcoming March, where people were excited to get outside after what was a pretty cold and dark February helped,” Wagamon said. “And then as people start to get vaccinated and feel safer going outside, we’re just starting to see more people out in the world.”

In addition to the stimulus checks and the state’s favorable weather conditions, William Butler, senior vice president of retail operations for Cresco Labs Sunnyside locations, expressed other factors that helped drive March dispensary sales, including the store’s overall depth of product, its sales promotions and wellness advisers.

Butler also agreed with Wagamon that he is starting to see more people getting outside and traveling again.

“I live just outside of Chicago, and as I like to say, the city is just starting to turn back on as far as folks coming from a destination standpoint that doesn’t live here,” Butler said. “But that’s just starting. So, as we start to see this growth [in sales], we see a lot of that come from our localized customers, which is terrific.”

The spike in sales affected the dispensary and wholesale side of things. Both sides had to make adjustments to ensure orders were getting filled, product was available, dispensaries were properly managing wholesale deliveries and more.

“It was a very busy March,” Wagamon said. “We are lucky in that we were able to fulfill orders for the most part, but when you have spikes in demand that are that high, we definitely felt it at the facility level. There were days that we averaged packing out about 25,000 to 30,000 units a day. We had one day where we shipped 45,000 units over 19 different orders, and that’s a lot of volume for our facility.”

And Wagamon said that wholesale employees were asked to work overtime to meet the demand.

“Ultimately, what her [Melissa’s] team does, helps fulfill our Sunnyside locations, which is just incredible,” Butler said. “So, that pack-out and those extra hours that went into the additional deliveries, part of that is a more Sunnyside.”

The dispensary is starting to get more deliveries than ever before, which is exciting as it means the dispensary is doing well with sales, and it’s also good to see a substantial amount of product available for customers, Butler said. 

© Courtesy of Cresco Labs

Butler

“I’m really proud of what we have done as a collaborative team to be able to manage the scheduling of these deliveries,” Butler said. “You can imagine the demand that this causes in the stores behind the scenes. So, we have to be very thoughtful, very methodical about how the deliveries are coming in and making sure we have the right amount of team members in place to be able to manage those deliveries when they do arrive, because the day they arrive, we want them available on the store menu, on the website available for purchase, we don’t want there to be a delay.” 

Butler said the dispensary and wholesale team’s strong collaboration is not something that was built overnight.

“Our sales overall have been very strong month over month, but March was exceptional,” Butler said. “So, I really viewed it as an extra building block. We weren’t scrambling to pull it together. We were able to really turn on our best practices and just take it to that next level.”

There has been a substantial increase in the number of in-store customers as well, Butler said.

“I would like to add that we still have very important measures in place when it comes to COVID prevention measures within all of our stores, for the safety of our team members and for the safety of our customers,” Butler said. “So, we’re proud that as we’ve had this influx of customers, that we still very much have very safe environments in order to prevent any issues from happening within the locations.”

In addition to having safety measures in place, Sunnyside dispensaries have also added additional team members and expanded store hours across multiple locations to keep up with the increase in customers.

And the March cannabis sales have been keeping the same momentum leading into April.

“It’s looking great thus far,” Butler said. “We are thrilled for 4/20 as that’s an incredible highlight of the year for us. I just love that we in the industry continue to make it even more important than special for our customer and for our team members in-store.”

The wholesale side is also having a strong April, and the team members are crossing their fingers that the weather continues to stay beautiful and that the momentum and excitement remains high as well, Wagamon said.

 

Maryland Medical Cannabis Dispensary Sales up 41% in One Year

by

Cannabis banking reform deposited another decisive victory in the U.S. House on Monday evening, when bipartisanship took over the floor of the lower chamber.

Cruising to passage by a 321-101 vote, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to bring safe harbor to depository institutions providing financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, is the first major piece of cannabis legislation to be approved by this Congress. Democrats voted 215-0 in favor of the bill, while Republicans voted 106-101 in favor.

In the last Congress, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a standalone version of SAFE Banking in 2019, and then House members passed the measure two more times as part of federal coronavirus relief bills in 2020. But the legislation stalled, in part because former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never acted on calendaring it for floor debate in the upper chamber.

RELATED: Senate Follows Suit in Reintroducing SAFE Banking Act

House lawmakers debated the current legislation, House Bill 1996, on the floor Monday afternoon, just hours before the official vote. In his opening remarks as the chief author of the bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said passing the measure is a matter of public safety, accountability and respecting states’ rights.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have either implemented or passed adult-use cannabis measures, while the majority of states have medical cannabis programs that depend on related businesses to remain fully functionable.

“Businesses in these states are forced to deal in cash,” Perlmutter said. “And the businesses, their employees and ancillary businesses can’t access the banking system. The fact is, people in states and localities across the country are voting to approve some level of cannabis use, and we need these cannabis businesses and employees to have access to checking accounts, payroll accounts, lines of credit, credit cards and more.

“This will improve transparency and accountability and help law enforcement root out illegal transactions to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and other white-collar crime. But, most importantly, this will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. These businesses and their employees become targets for crime, robbery, assault and more by dealing in all cash. And this puts the employees and store owners at risk.”

Last year in Oregon, a string of robberies and burglaries of cannabis businesses culminated in a murder, when Michael Arthur, a dispensary employee in Portland, was shot to death during a robbery on Dec. 14, according to Willamette Week. In 2020, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen, according to the weekly newspaper.

Helping motor more than $17.5 billion of legal cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, there were 515 banks and 169 credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses at the end of last year, according to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) quarterly cannabis banking update. But not all cannabis-related businesses have access to those financial institutions, and those financial institutions don’t have guaranteed safe harbor for taking on clients who operate in a sector that is not federally legal without federal retribution.

RELATED: SAFE Banking Act Refiled on Heels of $17.5 Billion in U.S. Cannabis Sales in 2020

Section 3 of the SAFE Banking Act is not only important to cannabis businesses, but also to everyone who might do business with a cannabis-related company, Perlmutter said. That section would protect ancillary businesses, like real estate owners, accountants, electricians and vendors, by clarifying the proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses are not unlawful under federal laws, he said.

“This proceeds section is the key provision allowing all cannabis-related businesses and their service providers, and landlords, to access the banking system without fear of reprisal,” Perlmutter said.

While Perlmutter has led the charge for cannabis banking reform for eight years, his fellow SAFE Banking Act sponsors in this Congress include Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whose legislation attracted the support of more than 170 co-sponsors when floor debate took place on April 19.

Stivers said he’s sponsoring the bill because it promotes common sense and safety, but also because it safeguards the assets of companies that merely provide products and services to cannabis businesses.

“I’m an unlikely person to support this bill, because I’m opposed to recreational marijuana,” he said. “But I came to this because a company that’s just outside my district [in the Columbus area] that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they’re being threatened—a Fortune 500 company—with losing their bank accounts. We can’t let that happen.”

Piggybacking on those comments, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, said, “Regardless of where you stand on the legality of cannabis, I think we can all agree it shouldn’t be that hard to sell a bag of dirt.”

But Joyce’s comments were more geared toward states’ rights.

“The vast majority of states, including my own, have enacted laws that to varying degrees permit their residents to use cannabis,” he said. “However, the federal government has not only infringed on the inherit right of these states to implement those laws, but also stifled medical research, diverted law enforcement resources needed elsewhere and hindered legitimate businesses—businesses that provide vital services to cancer patients, veterans and those seeking opioid alternatives for pain management.”

Because of the federal interference in the space, cannabis companies are not afforded the same access to financial services as every other state-legal business in the U.S., Joyce said.

While SAFE Banking picked up 15 additional Republican votes compared to its previous standalone vote in 2019, the party remained split. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was the main voice in opposition to the legislation during floor debate on Monday. He focused much of his dissent on the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.

“By enacting this legislation, we’re effectively kneecapping law enforcement and legalizing money laundering. These are concerns that I have that still remain,” he said. “By effectively legalizing money laundering, we’re inserting a new level of risk into our financial system. We’re preventing our legal entities from doing their jobs. We’re encouraging bad actors and placing our financial institutions at risk. Rather than dealing with the issues of cannabis and the question of its federal legalization, we’re dealing with a component of the challenge, which is the banking of it.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., rebutted and said he believes cash-only enterprises present an invitation for money laundering without SAFE Banking in place. With the cannabis industry approaching $20 billion of revenue a year, those enterprises also remain sitting ducks for violent crimes, he said.

Stivers said SAFE Banking encourages safety because money that’s in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked. The bill also expands suspicious activity reports (SARs)—a compliance step financial institutions servicing cannabis-related businesses must take to help ensure they’re performing their due diligence on clients to help the FinCEN prevent money laundering, he said.

“The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn’t even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate and the House,” Stivers said. “And we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there’s not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payment system. That’s a big deal.”

Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative where the U.S. Department of Justice targeted banks that service a broad range of what it considered questionable financial ventures, including online payday lenders, firearm dealers and other companies believed to be at high risk for fraud and money laundering, according to the Wall Street Journal. The operation ended in 2017, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners.

Perlmutter said SAFE Banking attracted about 50 endorsements from various national associations, such as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of State Treasurers, among other bankers, credit unions, insurance agencies, cannabis industry stakeholders, real estate owners and law enforcement agencies, not to mention 21 governors.

“They know this is a public safety matter,” he said. “We really need to address it. We have been working on it for some time. We need to get this to the Senate. They need to take whatever tack they want to take, but we’ve got to make our communities safer, these businesses safer.”

Illinois Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Hit New High, Topping $109 Million in March

by

Cannabis banking reform deposited another decisive victory in the U.S. House on Monday evening, when bipartisanship took over the floor of the lower chamber.

Cruising to passage by a 321-101 vote, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to bring safe harbor to depository institutions providing financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, is the first major piece of cannabis legislation to be approved by this Congress. Democrats voted 215-0 in favor of the bill, while Republicans voted 106-101 in favor.

In the last Congress, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a standalone version of SAFE Banking in 2019, and then House members passed the measure two more times as part of federal coronavirus relief bills in 2020. But the legislation stalled, in part because former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never acted on calendaring it for floor debate in the upper chamber.

RELATED: Senate Follows Suit in Reintroducing SAFE Banking Act

House lawmakers debated the current legislation, House Bill 1996, on the floor Monday afternoon, just hours before the official vote. In his opening remarks as the chief author of the bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said passing the measure is a matter of public safety, accountability and respecting states’ rights.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have either implemented or passed adult-use cannabis measures, while the majority of states have medical cannabis programs that depend on related businesses to remain fully functionable.

“Businesses in these states are forced to deal in cash,” Perlmutter said. “And the businesses, their employees and ancillary businesses can’t access the banking system. The fact is, people in states and localities across the country are voting to approve some level of cannabis use, and we need these cannabis businesses and employees to have access to checking accounts, payroll accounts, lines of credit, credit cards and more.

“This will improve transparency and accountability and help law enforcement root out illegal transactions to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and other white-collar crime. But, most importantly, this will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. These businesses and their employees become targets for crime, robbery, assault and more by dealing in all cash. And this puts the employees and store owners at risk.”

Last year in Oregon, a string of robberies and burglaries of cannabis businesses culminated in a murder, when Michael Arthur, a dispensary employee in Portland, was shot to death during a robbery on Dec. 14, according to Willamette Week. In 2020, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen, according to the weekly newspaper.

Helping motor more than $17.5 billion of legal cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, there were 515 banks and 169 credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses at the end of last year, according to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) quarterly cannabis banking update. But not all cannabis-related businesses have access to those financial institutions, and those financial institutions don’t have guaranteed safe harbor for taking on clients who operate in a sector that is not federally legal without federal retribution.

RELATED: SAFE Banking Act Refiled on Heels of $17.5 Billion in U.S. Cannabis Sales in 2020

Section 3 of the SAFE Banking Act is not only important to cannabis businesses, but also to everyone who might do business with a cannabis-related company, Perlmutter said. That section would protect ancillary businesses, like real estate owners, accountants, electricians and vendors, by clarifying the proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses are not unlawful under federal laws, he said.

“This proceeds section is the key provision allowing all cannabis-related businesses and their service providers, and landlords, to access the banking system without fear of reprisal,” Perlmutter said.

While Perlmutter has led the charge for cannabis banking reform for eight years, his fellow SAFE Banking Act sponsors in this Congress include Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whose legislation attracted the support of more than 170 co-sponsors when floor debate took place on April 19.

Stivers said he’s sponsoring the bill because it promotes common sense and safety, but also because it safeguards the assets of companies that merely provide products and services to cannabis businesses.

“I’m an unlikely person to support this bill, because I’m opposed to recreational marijuana,” he said. “But I came to this because a company that’s just outside my district [in the Columbus area] that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they’re being threatened—a Fortune 500 company—with losing their bank accounts. We can’t let that happen.”

Piggybacking on those comments, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, said, “Regardless of where you stand on the legality of cannabis, I think we can all agree it shouldn’t be that hard to sell a bag of dirt.”

But Joyce’s comments were more geared toward states’ rights.

“The vast majority of states, including my own, have enacted laws that to varying degrees permit their residents to use cannabis,” he said. “However, the federal government has not only infringed on the inherit right of these states to implement those laws, but also stifled medical research, diverted law enforcement resources needed elsewhere and hindered legitimate businesses—businesses that provide vital services to cancer patients, veterans and those seeking opioid alternatives for pain management.”

Because of the federal interference in the space, cannabis companies are not afforded the same access to financial services as every other state-legal business in the U.S., Joyce said.

While SAFE Banking picked up 15 additional Republican votes compared to its previous standalone vote in 2019, the party remained split. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was the main voice in opposition to the legislation during floor debate on Monday. He focused much of his dissent on the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.

“By enacting this legislation, we’re effectively kneecapping law enforcement and legalizing money laundering. These are concerns that I have that still remain,” he said. “By effectively legalizing money laundering, we’re inserting a new level of risk into our financial system. We’re preventing our legal entities from doing their jobs. We’re encouraging bad actors and placing our financial institutions at risk. Rather than dealing with the issues of cannabis and the question of its federal legalization, we’re dealing with a component of the challenge, which is the banking of it.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., rebutted and said he believes cash-only enterprises present an invitation for money laundering without SAFE Banking in place. With the cannabis industry approaching $20 billion of revenue a year, those enterprises also remain sitting ducks for violent crimes, he said.

Stivers said SAFE Banking encourages safety because money that’s in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked. The bill also expands suspicious activity reports (SARs)—a compliance step financial institutions servicing cannabis-related businesses must take to help ensure they’re performing their due diligence on clients to help the FinCEN prevent money laundering, he said.

“The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn’t even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate and the House,” Stivers said. “And we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there’s not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payment system. That’s a big deal.”

Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative where the U.S. Department of Justice targeted banks that service a broad range of what it considered questionable financial ventures, including online payday lenders, firearm dealers and other companies believed to be at high risk for fraud and money laundering, according to the Wall Street Journal. The operation ended in 2017, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners.

Perlmutter said SAFE Banking attracted about 50 endorsements from various national associations, such as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of State Treasurers, among other bankers, credit unions, insurance agencies, cannabis industry stakeholders, real estate owners and law enforcement agencies, not to mention 21 governors.

“They know this is a public safety matter,” he said. “We really need to address it. We have been working on it for some time. We need to get this to the Senate. They need to take whatever tack they want to take, but we’ve got to make our communities safer, these businesses safer.”

Federal Cannabis Regulations Working Group Releases its Principles for Federal Cannabis Regulations and Reform

by

Cannabis banking reform deposited another decisive victory in the U.S. House on Monday evening, when bipartisanship took over the floor of the lower chamber.

Cruising to passage by a 321-101 vote, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to bring safe harbor to depository institutions providing financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, is the first major piece of cannabis legislation to be approved by this Congress. Democrats voted 215-0 in favor of the bill, while Republicans voted 106-101 in favor.

In the last Congress, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a standalone version of SAFE Banking in 2019, and then House members passed the measure two more times as part of federal coronavirus relief bills in 2020. But the legislation stalled, in part because former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never acted on calendaring it for floor debate in the upper chamber.

RELATED: Senate Follows Suit in Reintroducing SAFE Banking Act

House lawmakers debated the current legislation, House Bill 1996, on the floor Monday afternoon, just hours before the official vote. In his opening remarks as the chief author of the bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said passing the measure is a matter of public safety, accountability and respecting states’ rights.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have either implemented or passed adult-use cannabis measures, while the majority of states have medical cannabis programs that depend on related businesses to remain fully functionable.

“Businesses in these states are forced to deal in cash,” Perlmutter said. “And the businesses, their employees and ancillary businesses can’t access the banking system. The fact is, people in states and localities across the country are voting to approve some level of cannabis use, and we need these cannabis businesses and employees to have access to checking accounts, payroll accounts, lines of credit, credit cards and more.

“This will improve transparency and accountability and help law enforcement root out illegal transactions to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and other white-collar crime. But, most importantly, this will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. These businesses and their employees become targets for crime, robbery, assault and more by dealing in all cash. And this puts the employees and store owners at risk.”

Last year in Oregon, a string of robberies and burglaries of cannabis businesses culminated in a murder, when Michael Arthur, a dispensary employee in Portland, was shot to death during a robbery on Dec. 14, according to Willamette Week. In 2020, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen, according to the weekly newspaper.

Helping motor more than $17.5 billion of legal cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, there were 515 banks and 169 credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses at the end of last year, according to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) quarterly cannabis banking update. But not all cannabis-related businesses have access to those financial institutions, and those financial institutions don’t have guaranteed safe harbor for taking on clients who operate in a sector that is not federally legal without federal retribution.

RELATED: SAFE Banking Act Refiled on Heels of $17.5 Billion in U.S. Cannabis Sales in 2020

Section 3 of the SAFE Banking Act is not only important to cannabis businesses, but also to everyone who might do business with a cannabis-related company, Perlmutter said. That section would protect ancillary businesses, like real estate owners, accountants, electricians and vendors, by clarifying the proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses are not unlawful under federal laws, he said.

“This proceeds section is the key provision allowing all cannabis-related businesses and their service providers, and landlords, to access the banking system without fear of reprisal,” Perlmutter said.

While Perlmutter has led the charge for cannabis banking reform for eight years, his fellow SAFE Banking Act sponsors in this Congress include Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whose legislation attracted the support of more than 170 co-sponsors when floor debate took place on April 19.

Stivers said he’s sponsoring the bill because it promotes common sense and safety, but also because it safeguards the assets of companies that merely provide products and services to cannabis businesses.

“I’m an unlikely person to support this bill, because I’m opposed to recreational marijuana,” he said. “But I came to this because a company that’s just outside my district [in the Columbus area] that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they’re being threatened—a Fortune 500 company—with losing their bank accounts. We can’t let that happen.”

Piggybacking on those comments, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, said, “Regardless of where you stand on the legality of cannabis, I think we can all agree it shouldn’t be that hard to sell a bag of dirt.”

But Joyce’s comments were more geared toward states’ rights.

“The vast majority of states, including my own, have enacted laws that to varying degrees permit their residents to use cannabis,” he said. “However, the federal government has not only infringed on the inherit right of these states to implement those laws, but also stifled medical research, diverted law enforcement resources needed elsewhere and hindered legitimate businesses—businesses that provide vital services to cancer patients, veterans and those seeking opioid alternatives for pain management.”

Because of the federal interference in the space, cannabis companies are not afforded the same access to financial services as every other state-legal business in the U.S., Joyce said.

While SAFE Banking picked up 15 additional Republican votes compared to its previous standalone vote in 2019, the party remained split. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was the main voice in opposition to the legislation during floor debate on Monday. He focused much of his dissent on the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.

“By enacting this legislation, we’re effectively kneecapping law enforcement and legalizing money laundering. These are concerns that I have that still remain,” he said. “By effectively legalizing money laundering, we’re inserting a new level of risk into our financial system. We’re preventing our legal entities from doing their jobs. We’re encouraging bad actors and placing our financial institutions at risk. Rather than dealing with the issues of cannabis and the question of its federal legalization, we’re dealing with a component of the challenge, which is the banking of it.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., rebutted and said he believes cash-only enterprises present an invitation for money laundering without SAFE Banking in place. With the cannabis industry approaching $20 billion of revenue a year, those enterprises also remain sitting ducks for violent crimes, he said.

Stivers said SAFE Banking encourages safety because money that’s in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked. The bill also expands suspicious activity reports (SARs)—a compliance step financial institutions servicing cannabis-related businesses must take to help ensure they’re performing their due diligence on clients to help the FinCEN prevent money laundering, he said.

“The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn’t even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate and the House,” Stivers said. “And we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there’s not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payment system. That’s a big deal.”

Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative where the U.S. Department of Justice targeted banks that service a broad range of what it considered questionable financial ventures, including online payday lenders, firearm dealers and other companies believed to be at high risk for fraud and money laundering, according to the Wall Street Journal. The operation ended in 2017, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners.

Perlmutter said SAFE Banking attracted about 50 endorsements from various national associations, such as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of State Treasurers, among other bankers, credit unions, insurance agencies, cannabis industry stakeholders, real estate owners and law enforcement agencies, not to mention 21 governors.

“They know this is a public safety matter,” he said. “We really need to address it. We have been working on it for some time. We need to get this to the Senate. They need to take whatever tack they want to take, but we’ve got to make our communities safer, these businesses safer.”

Blinc Group Introduces The Halo System

by

Cannabis banking reform deposited another decisive victory in the U.S. House on Monday evening, when bipartisanship took over the floor of the lower chamber.

Cruising to passage by a 321-101 vote, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to bring safe harbor to depository institutions providing financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, is the first major piece of cannabis legislation to be approved by this Congress. Democrats voted 215-0 in favor of the bill, while Republicans voted 106-101 in favor.

In the last Congress, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a standalone version of SAFE Banking in 2019, and then House members passed the measure two more times as part of federal coronavirus relief bills in 2020. But the legislation stalled, in part because former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never acted on calendaring it for floor debate in the upper chamber.

RELATED: Senate Follows Suit in Reintroducing SAFE Banking Act

House lawmakers debated the current legislation, House Bill 1996, on the floor Monday afternoon, just hours before the official vote. In his opening remarks as the chief author of the bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said passing the measure is a matter of public safety, accountability and respecting states’ rights.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have either implemented or passed adult-use cannabis measures, while the majority of states have medical cannabis programs that depend on related businesses to remain fully functionable.

“Businesses in these states are forced to deal in cash,” Perlmutter said. “And the businesses, their employees and ancillary businesses can’t access the banking system. The fact is, people in states and localities across the country are voting to approve some level of cannabis use, and we need these cannabis businesses and employees to have access to checking accounts, payroll accounts, lines of credit, credit cards and more.

“This will improve transparency and accountability and help law enforcement root out illegal transactions to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and other white-collar crime. But, most importantly, this will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. These businesses and their employees become targets for crime, robbery, assault and more by dealing in all cash. And this puts the employees and store owners at risk.”

Last year in Oregon, a string of robberies and burglaries of cannabis businesses culminated in a murder, when Michael Arthur, a dispensary employee in Portland, was shot to death during a robbery on Dec. 14, according to Willamette Week. In 2020, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen, according to the weekly newspaper.

Helping motor more than $17.5 billion of legal cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, there were 515 banks and 169 credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses at the end of last year, according to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) quarterly cannabis banking update. But not all cannabis-related businesses have access to those financial institutions, and those financial institutions don’t have guaranteed safe harbor for taking on clients who operate in a sector that is not federally legal without federal retribution.

RELATED: SAFE Banking Act Refiled on Heels of $17.5 Billion in U.S. Cannabis Sales in 2020

Section 3 of the SAFE Banking Act is not only important to cannabis businesses, but also to everyone who might do business with a cannabis-related company, Perlmutter said. That section would protect ancillary businesses, like real estate owners, accountants, electricians and vendors, by clarifying the proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses are not unlawful under federal laws, he said.

“This proceeds section is the key provision allowing all cannabis-related businesses and their service providers, and landlords, to access the banking system without fear of reprisal,” Perlmutter said.

While Perlmutter has led the charge for cannabis banking reform for eight years, his fellow SAFE Banking Act sponsors in this Congress include Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whose legislation attracted the support of more than 170 co-sponsors when floor debate took place on April 19.

Stivers said he’s sponsoring the bill because it promotes common sense and safety, but also because it safeguards the assets of companies that merely provide products and services to cannabis businesses.

“I’m an unlikely person to support this bill, because I’m opposed to recreational marijuana,” he said. “But I came to this because a company that’s just outside my district [in the Columbus area] that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they’re being threatened—a Fortune 500 company—with losing their bank accounts. We can’t let that happen.”

Piggybacking on those comments, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, said, “Regardless of where you stand on the legality of cannabis, I think we can all agree it shouldn’t be that hard to sell a bag of dirt.”

But Joyce’s comments were more geared toward states’ rights.

“The vast majority of states, including my own, have enacted laws that to varying degrees permit their residents to use cannabis,” he said. “However, the federal government has not only infringed on the inherit right of these states to implement those laws, but also stifled medical research, diverted law enforcement resources needed elsewhere and hindered legitimate businesses—businesses that provide vital services to cancer patients, veterans and those seeking opioid alternatives for pain management.”

Because of the federal interference in the space, cannabis companies are not afforded the same access to financial services as every other state-legal business in the U.S., Joyce said.

While SAFE Banking picked up 15 additional Republican votes compared to its previous standalone vote in 2019, the party remained split. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was the main voice in opposition to the legislation during floor debate on Monday. He focused much of his dissent on the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.

“By enacting this legislation, we’re effectively kneecapping law enforcement and legalizing money laundering. These are concerns that I have that still remain,” he said. “By effectively legalizing money laundering, we’re inserting a new level of risk into our financial system. We’re preventing our legal entities from doing their jobs. We’re encouraging bad actors and placing our financial institutions at risk. Rather than dealing with the issues of cannabis and the question of its federal legalization, we’re dealing with a component of the challenge, which is the banking of it.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., rebutted and said he believes cash-only enterprises present an invitation for money laundering without SAFE Banking in place. With the cannabis industry approaching $20 billion of revenue a year, those enterprises also remain sitting ducks for violent crimes, he said.

Stivers said SAFE Banking encourages safety because money that’s in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked. The bill also expands suspicious activity reports (SARs)—a compliance step financial institutions servicing cannabis-related businesses must take to help ensure they’re performing their due diligence on clients to help the FinCEN prevent money laundering, he said.

“The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn’t even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate and the House,” Stivers said. “And we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there’s not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payment system. That’s a big deal.”

Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative where the U.S. Department of Justice targeted banks that service a broad range of what it considered questionable financial ventures, including online payday lenders, firearm dealers and other companies believed to be at high risk for fraud and money laundering, according to the Wall Street Journal. The operation ended in 2017, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners.

Perlmutter said SAFE Banking attracted about 50 endorsements from various national associations, such as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of State Treasurers, among other bankers, credit unions, insurance agencies, cannabis industry stakeholders, real estate owners and law enforcement agencies, not to mention 21 governors.

“They know this is a public safety matter,” he said. “We really need to address it. We have been working on it for some time. We need to get this to the Senate. They need to take whatever tack they want to take, but we’ve got to make our communities safer, these businesses safer.”

SAFE Banking Act Cruises to Passage in House

by

Cannabis banking reform deposited another decisive victory in the U.S. House on Monday evening, when bipartisanship took over the floor of the lower chamber.

Cruising to passage by a 321-101 vote, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to bring safe harbor to depository institutions providing financial services to state-legal cannabis businesses, is the first major piece of cannabis legislation to be approved by this Congress. Democrats voted 215-0 in favor of the bill, while Republicans voted 106-101 in favor.

In the last Congress, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a standalone version of SAFE Banking in 2019, and then House members passed the measure two more times as part of federal coronavirus relief bills in 2020. But the legislation stalled, in part because former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., never acted on calendaring it for floor debate in the upper chamber.

RELATED: Senate Follows Suit in Reintroducing SAFE Banking Act

House lawmakers debated the current legislation, House Bill 1996, on the floor Monday afternoon, just hours before the official vote. In his opening remarks as the chief author of the bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said passing the measure is a matter of public safety, accountability and respecting states’ rights.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have either implemented or passed adult-use cannabis measures, while the majority of states have medical cannabis programs that depend on related businesses to remain fully functionable.

“Businesses in these states are forced to deal in cash,” Perlmutter said. “And the businesses, their employees and ancillary businesses can’t access the banking system. The fact is, people in states and localities across the country are voting to approve some level of cannabis use, and we need these cannabis businesses and employees to have access to checking accounts, payroll accounts, lines of credit, credit cards and more.

“This will improve transparency and accountability and help law enforcement root out illegal transactions to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and other white-collar crime. But, most importantly, this will reduce the risk of violent crime in our communities. These businesses and their employees become targets for crime, robbery, assault and more by dealing in all cash. And this puts the employees and store owners at risk.”

Last year in Oregon, a string of robberies and burglaries of cannabis businesses culminated in a murder, when Michael Arthur, a dispensary employee in Portland, was shot to death during a robbery on Dec. 14, according to Willamette Week. In 2020, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen, according to the weekly newspaper.

Helping motor more than $17.5 billion of legal cannabis sales in the U.S. in 2020, there were 515 banks and 169 credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses at the end of last year, according to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) quarterly cannabis banking update. But not all cannabis-related businesses have access to those financial institutions, and those financial institutions don’t have guaranteed safe harbor for taking on clients who operate in a sector that is not federally legal without federal retribution.

RELATED: SAFE Banking Act Refiled on Heels of $17.5 Billion in U.S. Cannabis Sales in 2020

Section 3 of the SAFE Banking Act is not only important to cannabis businesses, but also to everyone who might do business with a cannabis-related company, Perlmutter said. That section would protect ancillary businesses, like real estate owners, accountants, electricians and vendors, by clarifying the proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses are not unlawful under federal laws, he said.

“This proceeds section is the key provision allowing all cannabis-related businesses and their service providers, and landlords, to access the banking system without fear of reprisal,” Perlmutter said.

While Perlmutter has led the charge for cannabis banking reform for eight years, his fellow SAFE Banking Act sponsors in this Congress include Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whose legislation attracted the support of more than 170 co-sponsors when floor debate took place on April 19.

Stivers said he’s sponsoring the bill because it promotes common sense and safety, but also because it safeguards the assets of companies that merely provide products and services to cannabis businesses.

“I’m an unlikely person to support this bill, because I’m opposed to recreational marijuana,” he said. “But I came to this because a company that’s just outside my district [in the Columbus area] that sells nutrients now finds themselves in the situation where 25 percent of their profits come from selling to legal marijuana businesses, and they’re being threatened—a Fortune 500 company—with losing their bank accounts. We can’t let that happen.”

Piggybacking on those comments, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, said, “Regardless of where you stand on the legality of cannabis, I think we can all agree it shouldn’t be that hard to sell a bag of dirt.”

But Joyce’s comments were more geared toward states’ rights.

“The vast majority of states, including my own, have enacted laws that to varying degrees permit their residents to use cannabis,” he said. “However, the federal government has not only infringed on the inherit right of these states to implement those laws, but also stifled medical research, diverted law enforcement resources needed elsewhere and hindered legitimate businesses—businesses that provide vital services to cancer patients, veterans and those seeking opioid alternatives for pain management.”

Because of the federal interference in the space, cannabis companies are not afforded the same access to financial services as every other state-legal business in the U.S., Joyce said.

While SAFE Banking picked up 15 additional Republican votes compared to its previous standalone vote in 2019, the party remained split. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was the main voice in opposition to the legislation during floor debate on Monday. He focused much of his dissent on the fact that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level.

“By enacting this legislation, we’re effectively knee-capping law enforcement and legalizing money laundering. These are concerns that I have that still remain,” he said. “By effectively legalizing money laundering, we’re inserting a new level of risk into our financial system. We’re preventing our legal entities from doing their jobs. We’re encouraging bad actors and placing our financial institutions at risk. Rather than dealing with the issues of cannabis and the question of its federal legalization, we’re dealing with a component of the challenge, which is the banking of it.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., rebutted and said he believes cash-only enterprises present an invitation for money laundering without SAFE Banking in place. With the cannabis industry approaching $20 billion of revenue a year, those enterprises also remain sitting ducks for violent crimes, he said.

Stivers said SAFE Banking encourages safety because money that’s in a bank account can be frozen and can be tracked. The bill also expands suspicious activity reports (SARs)—a compliance step financial institutions servicing cannabis-businesses must take to help ensure they’re performing their due diligence on clients to help the FinCEN prevent money laundering, he said.

“The final thing is, this bill includes provisions to stop Operation Choke Point that Republicans couldn’t even get passed when we had the presidency, the Senate and the House,” Stivers said. “And we got that negotiated into this bill. It helps in a big way to make sure that there’s not an Operation Choke Point in the future, so nobody can choke off legal businesses from their bank accounts and from access to the payment system. That’s a big deal.”

Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative where the U.S. Department of Justice targeted banks that service a broad range of what it considered questionable financial ventures, including online payday lenders, firearm dealers and other companies believed to be at high risk for fraud and money laundering, according to the Wall Street Journal. The operation ended in 2017, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled multiple lawsuits by promising to Congress additional training for its examiners.

Perlmutter said SAFE Banking attracted about 50 endorsements from various national associations, such as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of State Treasurers, among other bankers, credit unions, insurance agencies, cannabis industry stakeholders, real estate owners and law enforcement agencies, not to mention 21 governors.

“They know this is a public safety matter,” he said. “We really need to address it. We have been working on it for some time. We need to get this to the Senate. They need to take whatever tack they want to take, but we’ve got to make our communities safer, these businesses safer.”

Minnesota Adult-Use Cannabis Bill Steers Through Three House Committees in One Week

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Gilberto “Berner” Milam Jr. has created an empire. 

After starting his (legal) cannabis career in the early 2000s as a Bay Area budtender, the rapper/entrepreneur noticed a lack of branding in the nascent industry. With little more than a strong vision, a love for the plant and an inhuman work ethic—he’s confessed to sleeping just four or five hours a night—Berner parlayed one powerful strain into Cookies, a global lifestyle brand with more than 20 dispensaries across the U.S. and Israel, a clothing line and a new digital content platform called Couch Locked Network (CLN).

CLN will launch on 4/20 with an inaugural comedy show, “Couch Locked.” The event touts a who’s-who of famous weed connoisseurs, from Bob Saget to Donnell Rawlings. The hybrid event consists of a live show with limited tickets on an outdoor terrace at a hotel in San Francisco. Viewers not attending in person can tune in via PPV livestream on Veeps.com. 

Berner spoke to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary about how the hybrid comedy show came about, increasing Black and brown ownership in the cannabis industry, and what it would take for him to sell Cookies.

Raj Chander: Give us some background on the genesis of “Couch Locked.” How did it come together? Who was involved?

berner

Wikimedia

Berner

Berner: I actually designed the logo about five years ago, I’ve been sitting on it for a while. I’ve always wanted to get into the comedy space. … Obviously, smoking bud, you know, it’s just part of what comes with it. You relax. But with COVID being COVID and not wanting to miss another 4/20 event, I thought it was the perfect time to bring a livestream, in-person, limited-ticket comedy show to the table. I wanted to laugh, man, and I feel like the world needed a laugh. We want to bring smiles to people’s faces. … This felt like a good time to implement something I’ve been sitting on.

RC: So, it sounds like you’ve had this idea for a while, even before all the COVID stuff happened, and you were just waiting for the right opportunity?

B: Yeah, I had to level up a little bit, man. I had to get the other businesses going, get the businesses to where I could take on another challenge. Because it’s actually a big challenge to jump into a new space like this and try to sell pay-per-view tickets to a live comedy event. But I think it’s going to be well received, and it’s much needed for sure.

RC: That’s interesting, because to me there’s been such a flood of virtual pop-ups, Zoom things, etc. It’s cool to hear you want to approach it a certain way and be thoughtful about it instead of just rushing into the virtual event space like a lot of others.

couchlocked

 

B: Well, yeah, if you think about it, I don’t want to watch someone rap. No disrespect to anyone doing streams like that, but for the last year, everyone’s been doing these virtual concerts. Man, you go to a concert to feel the music, to feel the vibe, to feel the energy. So, I was like “OK, what could we do that would be some type of a normal thing?” and I know that when I get high and watch comedy specials, it’s amazing. To see a live comedy special, bring you into that crowd and that atmosphere, people smoking bud while watching the show—that’s some futuristic ass shit.

RC: It seems pretty unique both in terms of the types of people you have and also the format –

B: There’s a lot of diversity in the comedians we have too. Some OGs, some new cats. I mean, we got fucking Bob Saget. It’s amazing. I grew up on “Full House,” dude! I know he’s a dirty birdie when he starts doing his comedy, and you don’t picture Danny Tanner talking like that. San Francisco live? Danny Tanner? Bob Saget? It was a no-brainer, I was like “Get that motherfucker over there!” Hopefully I can get him some weed and get him blazed, man.

RC: What’s been the biggest adjustment you’ve had to make during COVID?

B: I think just working from a distance: having to create and vibe over Zoom or through virtual networking. That shit sucks. I’m an in-person kind of guy, so just being away from that for a year, … not being at some of the store openings was really tough for me. If you go watch some of the old YouTube blogs, I’ll be at the store and I’ll be there from beginning to end. I personally shake everyone’s hand in the line. I don’t care if it’s 8 a.m. til 6 p.m.. So not being there for some of our store openings was really tough, but I think we just adapt and change. In any business, in any situation, you have to learn how to adapt and change and make it work. If not, you’ll be left in the dust.

RC: In light of the police killing of George Floyd last year and now more recently Daunte Wright, there’s been a lot of discussion about equity in the industry: Black and brown ownership, and these big corporations coming in and buying out minority license-holders. How do you think the industry can solve these problems?

B: Well as far as Cookies goes, if anyone wants to have a conversation about working with or trying to acquire us, they should know that this is something I plan on giving to my daughter one day. If they even want to have those kinds of conversations they have to sit down with us, smoke a joint, get high, and see if they’re even the right kind of person. I mean, this vision has been built for a long time. Money’s not gonna move the needle. It’s gotta be something that would complement everything I’ve worked toward.

RC: So you’d be open to that kind of acquisition deal, if the situation was right?

B: Possibly. I mean, look, at the end of the day I want to enjoy my life too. I’ve been working since I was 13. I’ve never stopped working since I was 13. As I go harder and harder as an entrepreneur, I want to enjoy my kids and enjoy my time. You only live one time. But it’d have to be the right situation. They’d have to have pure intentions, they’d have to understand the vision. It’s not gonna be possible, because people in the game now are looking for the money. It’s not about the money—we provide an experience. That’s why I said someone would have to sit down and smoke a joint with us. These big money guys, they don’t even smoke weed. And if they do, they ain’t smoking the shit I grow! That ends a lot of conversations right there too, they’ll be real quiet. Their pitch won’t be so straightforward, might have to sidetrack these motherfuckers a little bit (laughs).

But, I mean, here’s my goal man, keep Black and brown businesses empowered in the cannabis space, keep traditional operators in the game, keep people’s intentions pure and understand that this plant and this business is here for a whole other reason. Yeah. There’s a lot of money behind it, but the shit really unifies people and brings people together. It’s much needed. I don’t care about “recreational” or whatever, this shit is a medicine. 

RC: What specifically do you think would be involved in what you mentioned—keeping Black and brown operators in the game—is it the government? Something in the industry, or on the consumer side?

B: It’s a big gumbo of everything. The law that New York passed, some of the tax money coming in will go toward social equity applicants. That was huge, because people being awarded licenses with no money is like being given a key to a house with no house. It doesn’t make sense. So shout out to New York for taking that first step, but I definitely encourage other states that legalize—if you’re gonna take a 30% tax off weed, at least half of that should be dedicated to equity and empowerment programs.

I think another part of it is on operators like myself. We’re building something out called the Cookies University. We’ll have a facility that does everything from A to Z. From cultivation to breeding to operations to manufacturing, dispensary, lounge, nursery, POS system training, everything. We want to empower minorities—all minorities, Asian, Black, Latino, whatever—to come learn the game hands-on from us and get that knowledge, bro. We have houses being built on the facility, and so we can empower and share that knowledge with people and give them a chance to either land a position with us at Cookies or another company.

So it goes from the government giving money out, to people like myself empowering people. We opened up the first Black-owned social equity dispensary in San Francisco (Berner’s on Haight), gave one of the fairest deals ever—that is now a blueprint for what deals should look like in the Bay Area—and make sure it’s not just like a “Let us use your license, we’ll pay you” type of situation. Nah, I trained my partner personally. I hired the staff with him. I’ve known the guy—Shawn Richards—since I was 19 years old. So, besides the money, besides the opportunity, sharing knowledge so he can go and empower other people in his network, open up other stores and build a brand. That shit to me is the most important part.