Kansas City area marijuana companies waiting for cannabis banking bill – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Through the turmoil in Washington D.C., Congress is still taking the very early steps to normalize the cannabis industry by introducing the SAFER Banking Act in a Senate Committee.

The first medical marijuana became available roughly 30 years ago, and yet cannabis companies in the 2020’s are still running into issues finding a place to put the money they earn in a growing and increasingly legal industry.

“The first bank we were in, they decided to get out of the business so we had to find another one,” said BesaMe Wellness CFO Tom Elafros. “We were in it three, four months and had to find another one.”

That’s not a problem Elafros had ever run into before in any of his other businesses in a long list of other industries.

Lawmakers have advised financial institutions in the past that cannabis companies need banking partners, but many banks still won’t take their business because marijuana is still illegal on the federal level.

There’s some hope that if cannabis is eventually rescheduled as a less serious drug, that could change, but in the meantime, it’s made the growing cannabis industry a mostly-cash market.