Murder Changed My Mind: Pass the SAFE Banking Act Now

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis culture and politics

Last Friday, Leafly published Amara Barnes’ chilling account of an armed robbery at her cannabis store. Barnes is an employee at a store in the Tacoma, Washington area. On March 15, armed robbers robbed her shop for the second time. Two other nearby cannabis stores were also robbed on the same day. There have been more than 70 armed robberies at cannabis stores in Washington state in the past two months.

“Where’s the outrage?” asked Barnes. “When and where will the next ball land?”

A day later, the next bullet landed in Jordan Brown’s body. Brown, an employee at the World of Weed store in Tacoma, was shot dead by a gunman during a robbery on Saturday night, March 19.

Friends, family and colleagues have created a moving tribute to Brown in the temporarily closed store over the past few days.

Jordan Brown was shot dead Saturday while working at World of Weed in Tacoma, his family shared @KIRO7Seattle. He was part of the Makah tribe, an aspiring musician, and was described as “great fun, very outgoing, generous and kind”. pic.twitter.com/tmydT2F6h4

— Kevin Ko (@NewsWithKevin) March 22, 2022

If I could snap my fingers and teleport these flowers, pictures, and the “Remember His Name” poster, I would place them by Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) office door in the Hart Senate Office Building.

Remember his name, Sen. Booker. And consider changing your opposition to the SAFE Banking Act, which would allow legal cannabis companies to partner with banks and stop operating as cash-only businesses.

I was with you in your strategic position at SAFE Banking, Sen. Booker – up until this week. Things changed with the murder of Jordan Brown. This bill is no longer the SAFE Banking Act. It’s now the Safe Worker Act.

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My store was robbed on Tuesday. We’re still recovering from the trauma

Booker’s leadership was critical

Let me pay my respects to Cory Booker. The New Jersey senator has boldly led the charge for just legalization of cannabis in Congress and nationally. He is – and was – brave, outspoken, uncompromising and absolutely steadfast. His Marijuana Justice Act, introduced back in 2017, set the terms for today’s just legalization debate.

Sen. Cory Booker is a proven advocate for workers and legalization. The clock is ticking. Now is the time to act, Senator.

Last year, Booker partnered with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader, to introduce the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which would legalize cannabis nationwide and fund programs to promote justice and fairness in the industry.

At the time, Booker famously vowed to block the passage of the SAFE Banking Act (aka the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act) before it was fully legalized.

“I’ll tell you right now, if anyone in the Senate tries to just do a bank bill,” Booker said, he promised to “put me down” to block it. America deserved a full cannabis legalization bill, one that both ended Prohibition and repaired the damage of the War on Drugs. (To be clear, federal legalization would allow banks to service cannabis businesses, just like the SAFE Act.)

But months have passed. The House of Representatives is poised to pass full legalization next week – for the second time – with the MORE Act, its version of the Schumer-Booker Act. Meanwhile, the Senate Majority Leader’s legalization bill has gone nowhere. The clock is ticking. In November, Booker’s party could lose control of one or both houses of Congress.

It’s time to move.

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Who is really harmed here?

Booker’s reasoning made sense to me last year. SAFE banking appeared to be a measure designed to help the comfortable, not the afflicted. I was also aware of the legislative realities at play. Sometimes you just get a bite of the apple, and I was wary of the possibility that passing SAFE Banking could make some members of Congress less likely to vote for full legalization.

Jordan Brown’s murder changed my mind.

Brown’s death, along with Amara Barnes’ article, brought home to me the compelling link between bank access and job security. Access to banking isn’t about making life easier for executives at large, multi-state cannabis companies. It’s about protecting the right of American cannabis workers to a safe work environment.

Any other business takes debit or credit. Cannabis cannot do that

This is how the dots connect.

Under current law, banks opening accounts for cannabis companies risk violating federal anti-money laundering laws because cannabis remains an illegal drug under federal law. If a legal, state-licensed cannabis store cannot set up a basic savings or checking account, customers cannot use debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, Venmo, or any form of payment other than cash.

Result: Most cannabis stores are cash only. Would-be thieves know that every store has three tempting targets. Customers come with fat wallets, stores have lots of cash in their tills, and legal tender is piling up in the back room of the store.

The pandemic has changed the world of cash

Add this fuel to the fire: In the last two years of the pandemic, many non-cannabis stores have stopped accepting cash altogether. This was done for safety reasons (eliminating hundreds of touch points for virus transmission), but after a while many customers adapted and started paying with plastic out of habit. I used to go to an ATM once a week. Now I check in every month or two. I’m not alone on this shift. A financial analyst noted last year that the pandemic had “accelerated the shift to digital.”

That means cannabis stores are now among the few brick-and-mortar retailers with significant cash inventories. As Amara Barnes wrote last week, if you can’t use a bank, become a bank. For those prone to crime, cannabis stores now offer all the temptation of a bank without any safeguards in place to protect bank employees. To put it bluntly, the FBI won’t come after you if you rob a weed store.

Remove the money = remove the target

The current spate of armed robberies we’re seeing in Seattle — and last year in Portland and Oakland — won’t stop there. It will spread to other legal states. Shopkeepers strive to protect themselves, their employees and their customers. Armed guards are a common sight today. I passed two of them today standing outside one of my local shops. The sight was both comforting and unsettling. We shouldn’t have to live like this.

Get the money from the stores. That’s the key. To achieve this, cannabis stores must be able to accept non-cash means of payment. And to do that, Congress must pass either federal legalization or the SAFE Banking Act. Right away.

Sen. Booker, new information has entered our world. The environment has changed. My position on the SAFE Banking Act has changed accordingly. Yours should too.

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Bruce Barcott

Leafly senior editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

Check out Bruce Barcott’s articles

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