"Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and White House and still couldn't get cannabis reform bills passed," Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) complained on Twitter last week. "I would go much further and end the federal war on a plant entirely, but at LEAST let legal business operate as a legal business."
Paul was alluding to the the SAFE Banking Act, which would make it easier for state-licensed marijuana businesses to access financial services by removing the threat of civil, criminal, and regulatory penalties against banks that serve them. The bill has broad, bipartisan support because it would simultaneously dial back the war on drugs, defend federalism by reducing interference with state marijuana laws, help small businesses, and protect public safety by addressing the robbery threat those businesses face when they are forced to rely heavily on cash. But while the House has approved the SAFE Banking Act more than half a dozen times, it has never gotten a vote in the Senate.
