Why Banks Won’t Touch Legal Marijuana and the Risk it Creates

MarijuanaAs each state legalizes medical and/or recreational marijuana, much has been said about the issue of money. Despite the continued federal prohibition, the marijuana industry has grown rapidly. The emerging market brought in nearly $9 billion in sales in 2017, according to managing director of BDS Analytics, Tom Adams. With the POaddition of the Golden State, it is estimated that this number will increase to $11 billion in 2018.

Believe it or not, money is a problem. A very big problem. The massive amounts of money these marijuana dispensaries are bringing in have nowhere to go. With this cash floating around, marijuana business owners find themselves in a dangerous situation.

Just this summer, the owner of a successful marijuana dispensary in Southern California was abducted from his Orange County home, tortured and mutilated by kidnappers. The reason? They mistakenly believed he had buried tens of thousands of dollars somewhere out in the desert and wanted to know where it was.

In another horrific incident, a 28-year-old employee of a cannabis shop was left to die after being shot by masked men. Witnesses said they saw them escape with a duffel bag full of cash. In South LA, a teenager was shot dead by a dispensary security guard during a robbery attempt.

While California has allowed medical marijuana for years and fully legalized recreational in January of 2018, the state’s largest crop is still very much illegal under federal law. At the federal level, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I substance with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Afraid to place themselves under federal prosecution if they accept money from marijuana sales, banks turn these businesses away. This leaves marijuana dispensaries with lots of cash and nowhere to put it. A large majority of a multi-billion dollar industry is forced to deal almost exclusively in cash. Thus, more and more dangerous encounters and tragic events are taking place.

“It is a sad, misfortunate, bad application of public policy,” Aaron Klein, policy director of the Brooking Institution’s Center on Regulation and Markets, told The Daily Beast. “One of the purposes of decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana is to reduce crime.”

MedMen is one of the largest cannabis companies in the world, with stores in California, New York and Nevada. Despite raising roughly $135 million in venture capital money and having Chris Leavy as co-chairman, “the world’s largest money manager,” according to Bloomberg, no national financial institution wants anything to do with its money.

“Banking is definitely a challenge for this industry. I think everybody recognizes that,” MedMen spokesperson Daniel Yi said. “As an industry, of course we would like to have access to full banking services, including commercial loans, a line of credit — that’s what every business runs on.”

For now, marijuana dispensaries are continuing to rely on marijuana POB from an alternative provider like Marijuana Merchant Account. This option ensures businesses have a safe way to process transactions and handle their cash.

start

Marijuana Making Millions for Entrepreneurs in Colorado

Cannabis leaf scattered on the dollars. Seamless imageThe Marijuana industry is performing beyond everybody’s expectations.  Some have even labeled the cannabis business the “second gold rush” after discovering a few marijuana-made millionaires. Colorado boasts of a few entrepreneurs who can be said to have reached the top of the business ladder, some even featuring in one of the weekly editions of the People’s Magazine under a title “Colorado Marijuana Millionaires.”

This remarkable performance continues amid pressure from concerned parents and leaders to ensure minors do not use cannabis or related products. Tripp Keber is one of the Colorado marijuana millionaires and the CEO of Denver-based Dixie Elixirs. He specializes in manufacturing different types of cannabis edibles.

In an Interview with FOX 31, Keber discloses that one of the challenges he faces is branding and packaging. Remember, the law requires that these products must be packaged and labeled in a way that boldly shows that they are to be used by adults only.

The People’s Magazine featured Keber, along with two other women, an act that the former termed as an honor given the tainted reputation of the cannabis sector. Moreover, seeing women making millions out of a product with a questionable reputation is a sign we should change our outlook on Cannabis.

Dixie Elixir has been selling cannabis edibles in Colorado for some time now. Tripp Keber says he shifted focus to edibles in a bid to reach out to all demographics. At the top of the business’s priority is providing safe recreational as well as medical cannabis to those in need in the safest and most consumable way possible.

According to Tripp, he owes much of his success to the good name he has earned from maintaining different state and federal standards on safety as well as any other matters related to the business. While it took him years to meet these standards, Tripp has managed to sell Dixie Elixirs to all of Colorado, and the brand has become quite common on local TV.

The marijuana millionaire also encourages young entrepreneurs in Colorado looking to try out the cannabis sector to take advantage of the new accommodating rules and regulations.

Wrap Up

The primary requirement for getting a license for your cannabis business in Colorado is residing in the state for not less than two years. Perhaps that’s the first challenge you’ll encounter; getting a Marijuana POB account may not be a hassle. And the rest of the setbacks may kick in later as you familiarize with the industry.

start

The Rise of Legal Marijuana Forces a Shift from “Say No” to “Delay”

Marijuana POBIn California, the year kicked off with long queues of eager customers waiting in the dark; outside medical cannabis dispensaries for their “budtenders” to open doors and allow them to start shopping when the clock ticks midnight.

And this year, the effect has gone far beyond the marijuana cash register. We have all come across the ads or heard the rumor— even minors have, yet the drug remains illegal for under 21s.

“As you leave SFO [San Francisco] airport, you see prominent billboards for Eaze [a surfacing weed delivery service] with the message ‘Marijuana is here,’” says Danielle Ramo, an Adolescent Drug Use psychologist from the University of California-San Francisco. “Did parents expect to see so many images of weed all over?”

With the surfacing of legal recreational cannabis imminent in more American states, drug prevention education has evolved significantly with most schools dropping the archaic “Just Say No” slogan for an approach that may be more effective for a Marijuana POB era where weed is readily accessible. This new strategy emphasizes decision-making and critical thinking rather than insisting on abstinence.

One tactic they are adopting is the Being Adept curriculum. It is a proof-based course that has been in use by over 20 schools in San Francisco. This method along with other new-era drug education skills is based on decades of painstaking effectiveness research and current teaching practices.

The egg in a frying pan advert accompanied with the words “This is your brain on drugs,“ is no longer useful in drug education campaigns.

According to Ramo, “These are scare tactics are no longer effective. Today, school-based prevention is taking a very different mindset.”

In other words, more focus is now on facts, and not fear. What’s more, educators have realized that the conspicuously simplistic slogans like “Just say no” are no longer efficient. It is no wonder teachers are now urging students to check up data, contemplate on motives, talk about risks and think about on their goals and values.

The bottom line

Teachers are now expected to give engaging illustrations of the perceived dangerous effects of the drugs on the body while encouraging participation and allowing facts to unfold to the students. This means you are not merely going to tell the adolescent that his or her brain will resemble a frying egg when on drugs but you will give a demonstration of what takes place in the brain when someone is on drugs.

start