Bloomberg Law
4 minute read | March.25.2020
States began legalizing cannabis businesses in 1996, and, ever since, Congress and financial regulators have grappled with how to bank the cannabis industry—so far with little success.
Most of the billions of dollars in annual cannabis sales are still in cash, putting the industry and its employees in dangerous circumstances and leaving law enforcement without access to valuable financial data. Federal legalization would solve the problem, but seems an unlikely savior on which to pin the hopes of an industry given committed opposition on Capitol Hill.