California Treasurer Offers Banking Recommendations for Legal Weed, But Do They Go Far Enough? – News

California Treasurer John Chiang at a meeting of the Cannabis Banking Working Group in Los Angeles, August 2017; via MJ News.

On Tuesday, California State Treasurer (and 2018 gubernatorial candidate) John Chiang presented a report on cannabis banking. He began with an anecdote: Humboldt County, California’s weed growing capital, has one of the highest rates of reported missing persons in the state. At a public hearing there, when asked if a gun had ever been pointed at them, most of audience raised their hands. Violence within the cannabis space is symptomatic of the industry’s widespread inability to use banks.

“Wherever there’s cash, there’s risk in terms of some type of criminal activity to seize the cash. I know a lot of people who have been robbed,” says Andrew DeAngelo, director of operations at Harborside Health Center in Oakland. “We retailers have a lot at risk, we have the greatest concentration of cash in the supply chain.”

Because cannabis is a federally prohibited Schedule I substance, federally insured banks are reticent to do business with anyone whose money comes from weed. To navigate around this issue, Chiang has convened the Cannabis Banking Working…

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