Last week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a markup of the SAFER Banking Act, a long-discussed and multiple-times House-passed bill. This bill would give state-legal cannabis businesses the ability to use traditional banking services without running afoul of federal law. As Chair Rep. Sherrod Brown (D–Ohio) noted at the outset of the markup, "Regardless of how you feel about states' efforts to legalize marijuana – I'll say it again, regardless about how you feel about states' efforts to legalize marijuana – this bipartisan bill is necessary. It will make it safer for legal cannabis businesses and service providers to operate, to protect their workers first and foremost, and to operate in their communities."
This statement rings true for folks on any side of the marijuana debate, and the broad consensus in favor of the bill denotes what a needed step this is toward aligning federal law with state law. Importantly, it remedies many current public safety threats in the cannabis landscape.
