Holder announces bank regulations for cannabis industry

[RainDog]

Last edited Wed Mar 5, 2014, 02:24 PM - Edit history (1)

The Obama administration will soon announce regulations that allow banks to do business with legal marijuana sellers, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday.

"You don’t want just huge amounts of cash in these places. They want to be able to use the banking system," Holder said during an appearance at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "There’s a public safety component to this. Huge amounts of cash—substantial amounts of cash just kind of lying around with no place for it to be appropriately deposited is something that would worry me, just from a law enforcement perspective."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/01/holder-feds-to-let-banks-handle-pot-money-181777.html

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Holy shit! That... is... big!

[RainDog]

2. hang on...

this is change we can believe in.

[progressoid]

6. Really big.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Good.

Wave after wave of actual sanity. It's.... weird.

[Cha]

8. Getting use to it though real fast.

[tridim]

14. Weird, and predicted by many on DU.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. There are people on DU who are totally incapable of acknowledging when they were wrong, and someone

else was right.

I'm not one of those people, and I have a good memory. You were right, and so far so good.

[Jesus Malverde]

4. This is what big business has been waiting for...nt

[RainDog]

5. small business too n/t

[WhiteTara]

7. Boom goes the dynamite!

Yikes! That is the crumble of the lower bricks of the wall. Can you imagine running your card to buy pot? OMG the cc companies just made another fortune.

[blkmusclmachine]

9. It's all about the MONEY, honey!

[RainDog]

10. If that's what it takes...

...I'll take it.

In fact, I think it would be FUCKING AWESOME if this change in the law creates a mood of positivity for people and helps to create new jobs, entire new industries dedicated to a move to a sustainable, sometimes carbon neutral, and always biodegradeable product to replace the waste we now create.

time to give mother earth something back - like carbon capture, phytoremediation, etc.... oh amber waves of hemp, baby.

[indie9197]

11. This means the Feds have no plan to

raid the cannabis shops. If they did they would now have to throw the bankers in jail also. You know they wouldn't do THAT.

[MADem]

12. This IS--make no mistake--the turning point.

I wonder if Obama is going to move in the next couple of years--it would make life easier for HRC; take one debate question off the table. If the feds stop being assholes and cease enforcement, then the states will feel easier legalizing.

This is going to have a fair effect on the ability of the states to raise money. They need to tax sensibly but not onerously. The prices are going to start coming WAY down as legalization goes up, and some of that price difference can go towards taxes--perhaps they'll be used for safety net programs and education.

It would be nice.

[RainDog]

13. I think this provides a framework for Congress

To implement the legislation to regulate and tax cannabis at the federal level, to remove cannabis from the controlled substances act and put it under control of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Marijuana.

If federal Democrats hold hearings on this as state level democrats introduce their own legislation, that will help educate for state-level legislation.

The Obama administration has said, basically, that it supports the federal legislation.

Thanks, Obama!

[MADem]

15. Absolutely--both the feds and the states now have a hook upon which to hang their hats...

Their hats full of MONEY...!