In recent months, dozens of legal cannabis shops (potshops licensed) target of robberies. Some of these robberies inflict injuries or even deaths. It happens in states where cannabis trade is legal, especially Washington and California. The reason, according to cannabis dealers, is that robbers are looking for cash. In pot shops it is usually not possible to pay by card because federal banks do not want customers who sell weed. After all, marijuana sales are still a federal offense.
reprisals
So pot shops are forced to focus entirely on cash. Credit card companies are also boycotting the retail sale of soft drugs. The financial companies fear retaliation from federal agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that oppose legalizing the marijuana trade or enforce the letter of the law.
“It’s dangerous for employees behind the counter, and sometimes even deadly,” Washington Senator Patty Murray said recently. AP . news agency.
Golf
Dozens of cannabis companies in the San Francisco Bay Area were hit last fall by a spate of attacks that at times appeared to be coordinated and organized. In Washington state, at least 80 have been reported so far this year, mostly concentrated in one region. The fear is that the trend will spill over into states that have been relatively quiet so far, such as New Mexico, where cannabis sales recently became legal.
About 400,000 people work in the legal cannabis sector in the US.
Reforms
Although 18 states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana and 37 permit medical use, it remains illegal under federal law. In six states, the trade is completely illegal. Financial institutions say they fear fines, licenses and security of their deposit insurance.
Stores that can afford it have private security guards, but these can cost upwards of $50,000 a month. Other stores are trying to make deals with local banks.
In the House of Representatives and the Senate, Democrats in particular were now working on reforms of the rules in the banking system to also allow pot shops to connect to electronic payments. Now there is the Safe Banking Act ready, which has sufficient support, but there is now political squabbling within the Democratic party.
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