Rand Paul and 4 other senators introduce marijuana banking bill

[jct74]

U.S.: Marijuana Banking Bill Introduced By Bipartisan Group Of Senators

By Steve Elliott
Thu, 07/09/2015

Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Thursday introduced the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act, a bill that would allow banks to provide depository and other financial services to state-legal marijuana businesses.

Currently, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, both medical and non-medical marijuana businesses are unable to access banking services like any other business. Consequently, many cannabis businesses operate on a cash-only basis, leading to huge public safety issues as businesses become the target of robberies, and are forced to hire armed security to protect their takings.

“One of the motivations for legalizing marijuana is to eliminate the black market and put marijuana in the hands of a legitimate regulated market,” said Michael Collins, policy manager at Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs. “Whether you are for or against legalization, you have to recognize that having marijuana businesses handling huge amounts of cash with nowhere to deposit the money is a public safety concern that Congress has to tackle.”

...

read more:
http://hemp.org/news/node/5698

[jct74]

Rand Paul joins effort to bring banking to legal marijuana businesses

By Meena Thiruvengadam
July 9, 2015

Less than a month after holding a fundraiser on the sidelines of a Colorado marijuana conference, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has joined the fight to give America’s growing legal marijuana industry access to banking services.

Paul is among a bipartisan group of senators who have signed on to support the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act of 2015, introduced Thursday in the Senate by a group of senators from Oregon and Colorado.

The bill would prohibit banking regulators from penalizing or discouraging banks from providing financial services to marijuana businesses operating in areas of the U.S. where marijuana has been legalized.

It also would ban regulators from terminating federal deposit insurance at banks providing services to state-sanctioned marijuana businesses and would create a safe harbor from criminal prosecution, liability and asset forfeiture for financial institutions who provide services to marijuana businesses operating legally.

...

read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rand-p...210330489.html

[timosman]

read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rand-p...210330489.html

No longer on Yahoo!, Google has a cached copy - http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Working Poor]

I think Rand could win on his stand on pot alone. What the people who would vote for him on this issue alone do not understand is that if they don't vote for him in the primary he will not get the nomination. A lot of people do not understand the Primaries and that they need to vote in them.

Many young people think that Rand is a libertarian and that when the general election is on all they will have to do is vote libertarian. If he is to win these people have to get up off their asses and vote for him in the primary.

As his supporters we need to log in to comment sections of articles about him and his stand on pot and educated the ones who want to make it legal because many of them obviously do not understand that Rand is not a libertarian and he most likely will not appear on the ballot as a libertarian and help them understand he has to win the primary vote.

[cindy25]

it shouldn't be limited to pot. they should add gold/silver, pawn shops, payday loans, delis, neighborhood bars, and any business that is "not liked"

even individuals should be included. there is no reason why bad credit, criminal record etc should stop someone from having a savings account.

[Created4]

Not just banking, but now they cannot even deduct business expenses:

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ruled that a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco could not deduct any business expenses from its taxes because the dispensary traffics in a controlled substance under federal law.

Affirming a tax court’s decision, the appellate judges decided that the Internal Revenue Code blocked dispensary operator Martin Olive from deducting $236,502 and $417,569 in business expenses for 2004 and 2005 tied to his Vapor Room Herbal Center, where patrons consume medical marijuana.

Source.

How are these businesses going to survive?

[Vanguard101]

He has to come out in support of legalizing marijuana. I guarantee you Hilary will once she sees the support

[Created4]

He has to come out in support of legalizing marijuana. I guarantee you Hilary will once she sees the support

I am not so sure the majority of the public has swung around to all out support nationally. Look at what happened with a recent ballot initiative in Florida.

[Jamesiv1]

How to be like Rand Paul:
1. Kick ass
2. Take names later

He just keeps doing awesome things one right after another. What are the other guys doing? Squat

[Keith and stuff]

He has to come out in support of legalizing marijuana. I guarantee you Hilary will once she sees the support

She is already 3rd best on the issue, according to MPP. However, Trump has come out for legalization to a private group of liberty folks in NH. Not sure if Trump is serious on the issue or not, because he is Trump.


Best Rand Paul (R)
2nd Best Lincoln Chafee (D)
3rd Best Hillary Clinton (D)
Based on the MPP information, unless the candidates change their positions, I'm not sure if there is much motivation for strong marijuana supporters to vote Paul over Clinton in CO, WA, AK, or OR.

https://www.mpp.org/2016-presidential-candidates/

[timosman]

How to be like Rand Paul:
1. Kick ass
2. Take names later

He just keeps doing awesome things one right after another. What are the other guys doing? Squat

Squat is the actual term used from his twitter account: https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/618925078877634564

Since 1986, there was a promise we would enforce the law on border security. We’ve done squat.

I also think he still needs to work on p.1, kicking ass that is. I want to see more of that.

[Vanguard101]

I am not so sure the majority of the public has swung around to all out support nationally. Look at what happened with a recent ballot initiative in Florida.

I don't think candidates will flock towards another candidate over marijuana

She is already 3rd best on the issue, according to MPP. However, Trump has come out for legalization to a private group of liberty folks in NH. Not sure if Trump is serious on the issue or not, because he is Trump.


Best Rand Paul (R)
2nd Best Lincoln Chafee (D)
3rd Best Hillary Clinton (D)
Based on the MPP information, unless the candidates change their positions, I'm not sure if there is much motivation for strong marijuana supporters to vote Paul over Clinton in CO, WA, AK, or OR.

https://www.mpp.org/2016-presidential-candidates/

Most people in the business sector or in the establishment don't care about social issues. I'm sure Trump wouldn't support jailing people for marijuana unless if the country hated marijuana

[osan]

Currently, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, both medical and non-medical marijuana businesses are unable to access banking services like any other business. Consequently, many cannabis businesses operate on a cash-only basis, leading to huge public safety issues as businesses become the target of robberies, and are forced to hire armed security to protect their takings.

What?! This reads like pure bull$#@!.

Were I a cannabis farmer in CO, the LAST thing I would want would be to put money in a bank where my finances could be tracked. Public safety issue, my ass. Millions of businesses operate on all- or largely-cash bases. I have not heard of any waves of violent crime targeting these cash-rich affairs. This safety nonsense seems like an attempt to justify that which requires no justification. I am a free man. If I choose to grow cannabis, it is nobody's business but my own. If I want to use a bank, I need just justify such use on any basis beyond that I so choose. This is the sort of weak reasoning that causes rights to retain a de facto status of privilege. We plead with the jerkoffs in "government", hat in hand, for the miserable crumbs they might deign to let drop from their tables of bounty.

Screw that, screw them, and screw anyone who thinks that this is a sound approach to the exercise of one's rights.

“One of the motivations for legalizing marijuana is to eliminate the black market and put marijuana in the hands of a legitimate regulated market,” said Michael Collins, policy manager at Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs. “Whether you are for or against legalization, you have to recognize that having marijuana businesses handling huge amounts of cash with nowhere to deposit the money is a public safety concern that Congress has to tackle.”

Even those advocating for cannabis are stupid in their heads. We do NOT want what is bolded. We want FREE markets. "Legitimate" <> "free".

People today are generally so high-fly ignorant about the most basic of life's considerations that I am mystified as to how they breathe on their own. Most of the time I half expect 90% of the population to drop dead in unison because they could no longer figure out how to make blood flow through their own veins.

People don't want freedom. They want pretty slavery. They have no guts, no knowledge, and no sense about them at all in a frightening plurality of cases.

[euphemia]

To someone like me, who is an older taxpayer, this seems like a niche issue. It has nothing to do with me, and it's not like we don't have bigger issues that affect all of us.

Not trying to insult people, but there is a larger America out there.

[eleganz]

How to be like Rand Paul:
1. Kick ass
2. Take names later

He just keeps doing awesome things one right after another. What are the other guys doing? Squat

t3h liberty movement, she is not satisfied and she never will be until Rand is exactly like t3h father.

[William Tell]

To someone like me, who is an older taxpayer, this seems like a niche issue. It has nothing to do with me, and it's not like we don't have bigger issues that affect all of us.

Not trying to insult people, but there is a larger America out there.

Yep, its niche, and doesn't affect me either. Raw milk is a niche issue as well. In the end we all belong to niche factions, but the unifying component in all these issues is liberty.

[dannno]

To someone like me, who is an older taxpayer, this seems like a niche issue. It has nothing to do with me, and it's not like we don't have bigger issues that affect all of us.

Not trying to insult people, but there is a larger America out there.

It's a good issue anybody can use as a litmus test whether it benefits them or not.. but honestly it has so many medicinal uses it could probably benefit a family member or good friend at least.

[rich34]

I don't think candidates will flock towards another candidate over marijuana


Most people in the business sector or in the establishment don't care about social issues. I'm sure Trump wouldn't support jailing people for marijuana unless if the country hated marijuana

Trump's going to do and say whatever public opinion says for him to do, while at the same time telling you that he's the only one that's not doing that. Take planned parenthood for instance. I'm not arguing one way or the other on this issue, I'm just pointing out how at first, he came out strongly against it, like shut it all down against it, but then he changes his tune to well only fund the good parts and defund the bad. This man is the biggest F'n panderer that I've ever seen, while at the same time he tries to make you think that he's the only authentic candidate in the race. I'd like to see someone shave that head of his.

[Working Poor]

To someone like me, who is an older taxpayer, this seems like a niche issue. It has nothing to do with me, and it's not like we don't have bigger issues that affect all of us.

Not trying to insult people, but there is a larger America out there.

It is a freedom issue and it does affect you because your taxes are paying to imprison people for something that is not a crime. I hope you don't support prosecuting people for it with your tax dollars. If we all are not free none are free.

[TommyJeff]

Why so much support for federal banking regulations?? Is it because people agree the federal government shouldn't have a federal law banning marijuana? So is the answer federal law telling state banks what they can and can't do? Is the option of lettinga a private entrepreneur formulate their own ideas to fix this need, frowned upon by those on this forum?

[muh_roads]

I hope it fails. On top of what TommyJeff said, I argue that people should stop asking their masters for permission and just use bitcoin. Stop using debt slave money that funds US sponsored terrorism.

[RonPaulMall]

I am not so sure the majority of the public has swung around to all out support nationally. Look at what happened with a recent ballot initiative in Florida.

It got 58% of the vote. Governor Rick Scott was on the ballot in 2014 too and he won re-election with just 48% of the vote. 58% is more than Rick Scott ever got in Florida. More than Barack Obama ever got. More than Rubio or Nelson ever got. And if it hadn't been an off year election there is little doubt pot would have gotten the 60% threshold needed to pass.

[jkob]

Rand need to come out for full legalization, he could single handedly elevate the debate