No safe banking for you!

Marijuana legalization took a hit when the Safe Banking Act was removed from the NDAA.

They say “one step forward, two steps back” is the motto in the marijuana industry, and it seems to be true because after the House of Representatives added the Safe Banking Act to the National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate removed it. There is currently little hope of the Safe Banking Act being passed in early 2022, but Colorado Rep. Ed Perimutter plans to submit a final amendment to the NDAA to the Rule Committee to try to add the Safe Banking Act back into the NDAA.

While the NDAA removed secure banking access for the marijuana industry and its employees, it retained the language and funding of UFOs and unidentified areial phenomena. As Wolf of Weed Street pointed out, we hope that the aliens will be able to use credit cards and pay their taxes with access to bank accounts because who knows how much tax revenue we will lose for these aliens who are on planet earth “Eat and race”.

What does this mean for the cannabis industry now?

Estimates on the Internet showed that nearly 95% of Wall Street expected the Safe Banking Act of one form or another to be passed under this bill, at least according to analysts of cannabis stocks on the buy-side.

This is a big win for MSOs and large cannabis companies that have greater cash flows and access to debt at reasonable rates, say, 8% to 11% credit spreads. Small marijuana businesses and startups that lack strong cash flows and access to cheap debt will be hardest hit by lack of access to bank accounts, loans, and easy investment. Score one win for Big Marijuana and one loss for Small Marijuana. Look for further consolidation as the bigger fish with access to cash and light debt can now increase their leverage on smaller market deals and get them done.

This will not help competition in the cannabis industry and branding will now be more difficult for small businesses with low cash reserves. The brands that have the budget to market long term will be in-house pharmacy brands. So keep an eye out for your “Reserves, Mergers, and Small-Batch Growth” slogans to keep building dynamic marketing channels.

Another part of the Safe Banking Act was the deletion of cannabis arrest records and social justice rules to help those hardest hit by the war on drugs. Those features are no longer at play with the Safe Banking Act removed from the NDAA, so the House needs to find a way to get the delete language into law by other means or through the rules committee.

Overall, a largely disappointing morning for the cannabis industry, while full legalization was viewed as a struggle and federal reform had many kinks to solve, safe banking was viewed as a layman by the industry and didn’t cross the line for the people. Beliefs about whether or not marijuana should be legalized at the federal level. The law was all about allowing state-approved marijuana businesses to use bank accounts, credit card machines, the ability to pay taxes with checks and deposits, and to protect the safety of workers in the marijuana industry across the country. Right now, criminals know that local pharmacies have huge inventories of cash and millions of dollars in cannabis in their stores. This creates easy targets for thieves and puts employees at risk every day.

Hundreds of cannabis laws were made in the more liberal house and have slowly died in the Senate. In the end, Mitch McConnell and the Senate power brokers will have to be voted out or forced by the American people to change their stance on marijuana reform in America to enforce legalization and safe banking.

READ MORE ABOUT SECURE BANKING AND MARIJUANA COMPANIES …

HOW CAN MARIJUANA COMPANIES HAVE BANK ACCOUNTS NOW? READ HERE!

OR..

WHEN AND HOW CAN THE SAFE BANKING ACT FINALLY HAPPEN?