McConnell Is Blocking Simple Non-Financial Aid To The Marijuana Industry... As Though He Were Still Living In The 1950s

As you know by now, on Friday House Democrats (+ Long Island Republican Pete King) passed a $3 trillion HEROES relief bill that is now being assessed by the Republican leaders in the Senate. But what you might not know is that the bill includes provisions for cannabis banking. It's basically a version of Ed Perlmutter's Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Bill (HR 1595), which passed last September and was consigned to oblivion by McConnell, even though it is a very popular piece of legislation that had 206 co-sponsors-- including 26 Republicans. It passed 321-103 every Democrat but Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL) plus 91 Republicans voting in favor.

But Greg Gianforte, who purports to representMontana, wasn't among them. We asked the progressive Democrat running for his soon to be open seat, state Rep. Tom Winter, how he would have voted, he told he wanted to paraphrase a former presidential candidate: "'I wrote the damn bill!' After taxes, taxes, and taxes, the next issue I heard the most about while knocking doors to flip an 11-point Trump district in '18 was legalizing marijuana. So I wrote the bill to do so, and now there are ballot initiatives in Montana using it as a framework. We are the only state that has had voters pass medicinal marijuana ballot initiatives twice-- both times with over 58% of the vote. It is shocking how much the Montana GOP has refused to listen to the voters on this issue. The majority of this state does not want the federal government involved in our personal lives. Of course it is the right thing to allow banks to work with small businesses selling a legal product. If people like Greg Gianforte would have listened to Montanans the first two times they told him where they stand on marijuana this would have been a no-brainer for our only representative. My guess is he doesn't have any stocks in this industry so he has no interest in doing what is right."

Cathy Kunkel, the Blue America-endorsed progressive running in central West Virginia is up against an anti-marijuana fanatic, Alex Mooney. "Banking reform for the cannabis sector is critical," she told me, "not just during the pandemic, but for future economic recovery. This is a growing industry with real economic potential to boost local agriculture in West Virginia."
 
Writing for Cheddar, Chloe Aiello reported on McConnell's '50s era nastiness and inability to take the marijuana industry seriously, about the whole project. The old closet queen said, sarcastically that "The bold new policy from Washington Democrats that will kick the coronavirus to the curb and save American families from this crisis, here it is, here it is: new annual studies on diversity and inclusion within the cannabis industry," mocking House Democrats in a speech on Thursday. "Maybe it's best if House Democrats focus on cannabis studies and leave economics to the rest of us. This is a totally unserious effort," he added.

Lobbyists and activists have been pushing for some sort of banking reform or financial relief for cannabis businesses to be included in coronavirus legislation. Although cannabis businesses have been deemed essential in many states, they cannot access federal aid, like small business loans and disaster relief. Amid the extraordinary conditions imposed by the pandemic, many of these businesses are struggling.

"The cannabis industry is getting hit with the same challenge everyone else is, but they don't have access to the funding that every other business has right now to continue to keep those people employed," said Keegan Peterson, founder and CEO of cannabis human resources management company Wurk.

Kevin Sabet, former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy advisor and president of the anti-cannabis group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, seized on blockbuster cannabis sales in the days leading up to lockdown measures across various states as evidence the industry doesn't need federal aid.

"Millions of small business owners across the nation have seen their livelihoods dramatically affected by this pandemic. Numerous industries have been forced to completely shut down and have made great sacrifices to comply with shutdowns and limitations on their business operations. The marijuana industry has been a painfully obvious exception to this. This industry has used its lobbying arm to force state officials to keep their storefronts open, sued leaders who shut them down, and bragged incessantly about their revenues," Sabet said in a statement.

But Peterson, who has had front row seats to the devastation the pandemic has wreaked on an industry already suffering after a challenging 2019, said it's more nuanced than that.

"[Cannabis is] an essential business, but that doesn't mean that cannabis revenues are going through the roof. I think there has been a false narrative. Cannabis companies in March had their highest day in revenue, they also had their lowest day of revenue," he said. "Folks are talking about the good things that are happening at this time, and they are not being as open about the challenging things that are happening."

The SAFE Banking Bill would permit banks to transact with cannabis businesses, offering up much needed financial products like loans, credit, and debt funding at a time when many cannabis businesses are struggling.

David Wenger, an attorney who sits on the board of cannabis company Body and Mind, said that access to these various products would be a "game changer" for cannabis companies. Wenger and his colleague, Jeff Schultz, now a partner at Feuerstein Kulick, penned an op-ed in MarketWatch last year urging lawmakers to amend SAFE Banking to include activities regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, too. A change like that would grant U.S. cannabis companies access to the U.S. capital markets, inject cash in a growth industry, and, they argue, would coax bigger banks to jump into business with the cannabis industry

Regardless of whether Congress heeds their call to amend SAFE, they are supportive of wrapping the bill into a coronavirus stimulus package.

Cannabis industry advocates also argue that operating a cash-heavy business during the outbreak poses a health risk. Conflicting information on how long the novel coronavirus can live on surfaces and the likelihood of transmission from contact with infected items have prompted some businesses to shy away from cash altogether. In early March, the Federal Reserve even began quarantining bank notes received from Asia before releasing them back into circulation, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"If the Treasury is quarantining cash, someone in the federal government believes it is unsafe to be handling physical cash, which begs the question: why are they forcing-- not permitting, forcing-- the cannabis industry to use cash, when they know it's unsafe?" Schultz said.

For now, the fate of the $3 trillion "HEROES Act," which seeks, among other things, $1 trillion for state and local governments, relief for student loans, hazard pay for health care workers, and another round of stimulus checks, is tenuous.