How Govt. Endangers The Lives Of People In The Medical Pot Biz -- And Their Customers And Anyone Who Happens To Be Passing By
The government encourages robberies of medical marijuana businesses -- in the states where they are legal -- by keeping these businesses out of the normal financial services pipeline.

You could be driving by a pot biz -- or the owner or customer of one -- and get maimed or killed by somebody holding the place up for the huge sums of cash these businesses are forced to deal with.

Here's the LAT's editorial board on the perils of pot's cash economy.

Medical marijuana may be a billion-dollar industry in California, but it's a cash business.

Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, most pot shops can't get bank accounts or accept credit card transactions because the financial services companies fear they would be penalized or shut down by federal regulators for handling money gained from unlawful drug sales. That means marijuana products are typically sold for cash, and dispensary owners pay their employees, their landlords and others in cash as well. It's not unusual for pot shop owners to haul bags of money -- tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars -- to the state tax collector's office.

But as unwieldy as the cash-only system is now, California regulators and cannabis businesses could be swimming in even more cash if voters pass Proposition 64 in November and the state legalizes adult recreational use of marijuana. California dispensaries sold an estimated $2.7-billion worth of marijuana last year, and industry observers predict the recreational and medicinal market could increase to $6 billion by 2020.

...But even proponents must acknowledge that as long as the marijuana industry is a cash business, it will be harder for California to regulate and control. And there is little state officials can do to fix the banking problem as long as the federal government considers marijuana an illegal drug and classifies marijuana revenues as illegal proceeds.

In theory, banks have some cover for working with marijuana customers. The Justice and Treasury departments issued guidance on how banks could serve state-sanctioned marijuana businesses, as part of President Obama's policy of allowing states to experiment with legalizing marijuana. But that doesn't apply to independent bank regulators like the Federal Reserve or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In practice, pot shops that are able to open accounts often find them shut down after a few months when the large cash deposits raise alarms, according to the National Cannabis Industry Assn.

...Lawmakers from Colorado and Oregon have introduced bipartisan bills that would allow banks to start providing services to marijuana businesses that are licensed and regulated by the state, but they've failed to get traction in the House and Senate. If voters in California and four other states choose to legalize marijuana in November, how much longer can federal leaders ignore a multibillion dollar industry?