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State sees need to formalize bank use for cannabis

Marijuana business moving from cash only, some hope

Legalize it! Banking, that is.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and 31 of his peers are asking members of Congress to pass a bill that would, for the first time, provide a framework for cannabis businesses to legally use banking services.

“It is increasingly critical to move cannabis commerce into the regulated banking system,” they wrote in a July 24 letter to House and Senate leadership, urging passage of the SAFER Banking Act of 2025. Prior versions of the bill in 2019 and 2021 passed the House but died in the Senate.

Maryland’s Brown, plus the attorneys general of 28 other states, the District of Columbia, and two territories, argue that cannabis businesses should be moving away from dealing exclusively in cash, which they argue is attractive to criminals.

They also want to establish legal clarity over tax collection so banks can work with state-approved operators like cannabis dispensaries and processors without fear of federal penalties. Twenty-one states collect cannabis tax revenue, including Maryland, which just raised its tax rate on cannabis this year from 9% to 12%.

“The current lack of regular banking by lawful cannabis businesses within our jurisdictions also inhibits the states’ ability to collect taxes and conduct meaningful oversight of those businesses’ revenues,” the letter says.

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3 thoughts on “State sees need to formalize bank use for cannabis”

  1. Now the government are enablers and drug dealers
    Always about the bucks not we the people at all
    Never seams to amaze me

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