A key part of being happy in life is managing expectations, and investors and companies who have waited for years to see cannabis legalized at the federal level have become experts at this effort.
On April 21 New Jersey became the 18th state to allow for recreational cannabis sales.
Happiness for the cannabis industry in this paradigm is another state allowing some of the top multistate operators to obtain one of the limited numbers of licenses offered.
But the industry faces a yet bigger issue than state licensing: Current U.S. laws make accessing funds to start or grow a cannabis business nearly impossible.
The government can still punish banks for financing drug operations, even in states where recreational and medical cannabis are legal. So most banks won't do business with cannabis companies.
Many pot operations are therefore forced to operate as cash businesses, which then makes them targets for robberies. In the state of Washington alone, at least 80 armed robberies at dispensaries have been reported so far this year.
Gov. Jay Inslee weighed in on Twitter, calling on Congress to pass the SAFE Banking Act, which would prohibit a federal banking regulator from penalizing a bank for providing services to a legitimate cannabis-related business.
Washington Sen. Murray Leads the Charge
Politicians in Washington, D.C., are starting to take notice.
On Wednesday, which just happened to be the international pot holiday 4/20, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, at a news conference said she was committed to passing the SAFE Banking Act, formally the the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act.
“It makes absolutely no sense that legal cannabis businesses are being forced to operate entirely in cash," she said. "It’s dangerous -- and sometimes even fatal -- for the employees behind the register, but this situation is also completely preventable.
"I’ve been pushing the federal government -- particularly my Republican colleagues -- to catch up with Washington state. I am working to update our laws so that these legal small businesses have a safe way to do business.
"I am urging every one of my colleagues to come together so that we can finally pass the SAFE Banking Act.”
Under current laws, regulators can penalize banks by terminating or limiting their deposit insurance or, for credit unions, share insurance.
Banks under current law could also be forced to forfeit assets if they provide a loan or other financial services to a legitimate cannabis business. The SAFE Banking Act would remove that threat.
Industry (Still) Cautiously Optimistic
Sen. Murray's news conference this week had to be a welcome event for industry executives and employees who have expressed optimism that the bill could become law under the Democratic-Party-controlled Congress and White House. (Skeptics will say, with reason, that the Democrats' slim majorities in the two congressional chambers make federal legalization unlikely anytime soon.)
But the SAFE Banking Act has been around in multiple forms since at least 2013, with little to no movement regardless of which party has held the reins of government.
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed the America Competes Act, which included the provisions of the SAFE Banking Act.
It was the sixth time that the House advanced the SAFE Banking Act to the Senate. And for the sixth time the Senate voted against the bill.
"Legalization is long overdue," Curaleaf (CURLF) Chief Executive Joseph Bayern told TheStreet in a recent interview.
"It’s time for legislators to act, and it has taken way too long. I think we are optimistic that we get something done this year."
["Sen. Chuck Schumer {D-New York)] postponing the bill to August isn’t a good factor. Everyone recognizes that [the Senate is] way behind the American public."
Meanwhile, Boris Jordan, Curaleaf's executive chairman, is also cautiously optimistic about the banking reform, which the industry desperately needs.
"We heard that one of the more powerful senators involved in the original law -- I'm not going to mention because I'm told I wasn't allowed to -- that was involved in the original law has started to call around committees and started to talk about SAFE rather than the broader law," Jordan said during his company's latest earnings call.
"We think that's a very, very positive development."
The American people want the country to move towards legalization -- a recent Gallup poll showed that more than two-thirds (68%) of the American people want the country to move toward cannabis legalization.
The ball is in Congress's court.
