A Win for Cannabis in the U.S. Senate

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to allow banks to provide services to medical and recreational marijuana companies.

Since cannabis is still considered a Schedule 1 substance according to the federal government, cannabis businesses must rely on a cash-only business. Safety and operational issues arise from this common obstacle faced by many in the marijuana industry.

This vote will approve an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill. The previous bill, which was a standalone bill directed at addressing the banking issue, did not have the support needed to move forward.

More from Business Insider.

 

“We’ve seen this all before,” Jeff Foster, a co-founder of JANE, a payment-processing firm for marijuana retailers, told Business Insider. “I hope that some progress is being made. But certainly what happened yesterday [the Senate’s vote] was by no means a watershed moment.”

This isn’t the first time the federal government has tried to give banks the green light to work with marijuana businesses.

In February 2014, President Obama announced – with the backing of the Treasury Department and the Justice Department – that the federal government would not prosecute banks that dealt with money from legal marijuana dispensaries.

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