The Biden Administration wants to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. This means that state lawmakers can now allow it to be sold and given out. Even so, marijuana businesses are still having a tough time finding a bank that will give them loans, checking accounts, and other banking services that are right for their business.
A spokesman for the American Bankers Association, Blair Bernstein, said, “Any possible decision from the administration to reclassify cannabis has no effect on the legal issues surrounding banking cannabis.” Cannabis would still be against the law at the federal level, and many banks in this country won’t go there.
This is because a lot of banks don’t want to deal with money from the cannabis business. Most of them are afraid that the group will get them in trouble with the federal government because weed is still against the law.
Many people who sell and distribute marijuana in places where it is legal have been left out in the cold. Some companies have had to stop taking cards and only accept cash. This can be big amounts of cash, which makes them more likely to be targeted for fraud. This also means that these companies will bring a lot of cash with them when they go to file their taxes or do other important business-related tasks.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wants to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Schedule I drugs include LSD and Heroin. Schedule III drugs include some medicines and Ketamine. Then, different rules would be set up for medical uses, and anyone caught trafficking them without permission would be charged with a crime.
The people in charge might not make this change for months. After he said that the government would change the laws about marijuana, Biden had a lot of support from young voters. Congress has not moved on bills that would protect banks that work with marijuana funds for years.