WASHINGTON–Credit unions that serve the cannabis industry, as well as those that have been contacted about doing so, could see any progress that has been made stymied should Sen. Jeff Sessions be appointed attorney general of the United States.
Sessions, an Alabama Republican, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to become AG. Sessions has long been an outspoken critic of marijuana and its legalization.
"We need grown-ups in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger," Sessions has said in the past. “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
While a majority of U.S. states have now voted in favor of legalization of marijuana in some forms, it remains illegal under federal law and, as a result, violates federal banking laws. That has made access to payments systems nearly impossible for most cannabis-related businesses that rely almost solely on cash.
One credit union, Arvada, Colo.- based Partner Colorado CU, has launched a subsidiary called Safe Harbor Private Banking that serves that state’s cannabis industry. But nearly all other financial institutions have declined to serve the industry.
Sessions has not yet taken office, nor has he issued a statement on what his potential enforcement policies might be as Attorney General. As attorney general, he would also oversee the Drug Enforcement Administration.