House Votes to Let Banks Handle Marijuana Money

One of the major barriers for
newly legal recreational marijuana businesses in Colorado and
Washington, and medical marijuana businesses elsewhere, has been
lack of easy access to financial services. The businesses might be
legal at the state level, as
Jacob Sullum has noted, but federal regulators have left it
very much up in the air as to whether banks can accept money openly
connected to the marijuana trade.

Even more fun, the Internal Revenue Service then
penalizes marijuana businesses for not paying taxes through an
electronic system that requires access to a bank account.

Perhaps there’s some relief in sight, though. The House of
Representatives today told the Treasury Department to keep its
hands off banks that take mariuana-related money.

Courtesy of the
Drug Policy Alliance:

In a historic vote today the U.S. House passed a bipartisan
amendment by Representatives Heck (D-WA), Perlmutter (D-CO), Lee
(D-CA) and Rohrabacher (R-CA) preventing the Treasury Department
from spending any funding to penalize financial institutions that
provide services to marijuana businesses that are legal under state
law. The amendment passed 231 to 192.

In May, the House passed an amendment prohibiting the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) from undermining state medical
marijuana laws and passed two amendments prohibiting the DEA from
interfering with state hemp laws.

That
earlier measure, attempting to rein-in the DEA, may or may not
live up to its billing. Its wording prevents federal narcs from
interefering with state law, but the feds may deny they’re doing
anything of the sort even while kicking in doors and hauling people
in for engaging in locally illegal activities. Maybe they’re just
enforcing federal policy. Government officials just love
those sorts of word games.

The House measure still must win Senate approval, too, which is
not guaranteed. Still, the move is in line with shifting public
opinion.
Americans in general, and
younger Americans in particular, increasingly support
legalizing marijuana.