A plan to change the way the marijuana industry handles money finally moved forward on Capitol Hill, after about a decade with no progress.
A landmark, first time vote from the Senate Banking Committee advanced the SAFER Banking Act to the Senate floor. It will have to pass the Senate, then the House of Representatives, before it gets to President Joe Biden’s desk. Marijuana dispensaries praised the bill.
“I want to run like a regular business. I want to be a restaurant or a smoke shop down the street or anybody else,” said Clif Gordon at Herban Underground.
Gordon said he runs his business like any other.
“We hire employees, we pay employees, we order product in, we sell product out the door, just like anybody else,” Gordon said.
Gordon said about every third customer asks whether Herban Underground takes a credit card. The answer to those customers is no, cash only. A plan finally moving through Congress could change that.
Former Colorado Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter has been pushing for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act, or SAFER Banking Act, for a decade now.
“It was designed to allow banks to provide legitimate banking services to legitimate businesses in those states,” Perlmutter said.