SAFE Act

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer presided over a cannabis policy forum in the Capitol Visitors Center of the Congressional Auditorium on April 20 — an unofficial weed holiday. The Democratic Majority Leader was joined by marijuana proponents, including other government leaders, as...

With marijuana being classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, state-licensed cannabis businesses are cut off from accessing capital financial institutions such as banks. This leads to the question of how economic storms like the one caused by the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank, a...

Earnings season is upon us again, and most public cannabis companies will release results for the 4th quarter of 2022 in the next few weeks. Only two of the companies in the graph have reported to date. Green Thumb (OTC: GTBIF) beat consensus revenue estimates by 1% and EBITDA estimates by 1.2%,...

As the cannabis industry holds its breath while waiting to hear if marijuana banking reform will be part of a must-pass omnibus spending bill, James Hagedorn, a CEO of the lawn care giant Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG) shared  his thoughts on the importance of this bill....

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker thinks that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is significantly impacting his Senate colleagues to oppose passing any cannabis-related bills in the lame-duck session. Last week, McConnell revealed he was pleased that the final version of the National Defense...

For years, some if not most cannabis retailers have been obliged to employ a workaround to function within the restrictive system. Now, that is no longer an option.  Marijuana merchants have been relying on cashless ATMs to bypass limitations on the types of sales payment...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently targeted cannabis banking reform (SAFE Act) when he called on Democrats Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to strip the pot-related language from the defense bill last week before the National Defense Authorization Act (...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pleased that the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was unveiled on Tuesday, doesn’t contain marijuana banking reform. “Just as Republicans insisted, just as our service members deserve, this NDAA is...

Lawmakers opted not to put cannabis reform in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) defense bill. This means that under the existing federal law, financial institutions are still not allowed to provide their services to marijuana businesses even in states with legal cannabis...

What does the future hold for the cannabis industry in legislative terms? “We've made tremendous progress and I like to say we're getting closer and closer,” U.S. Rep. David Joyce, an Ohio Republican, said Tuesday at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference ...

On July 14, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the SAFE Banking Act. The Act has passed the House six times without being voted on in the Senate. The blue line on the graph shows the price of the MSOS ETF, the most widely followed...

A Pennsylvania General Assembly bill would protect banks, credit unions, and insurance companies that do business with legal cannabis companies in their state. Bill 331 amends Title 12, Commerce and Trade, of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, "providing for legitimate cannabis-...

Rep. Troy A. Carter (D-LA) and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) presented a new bill Thursday that aims to provide many benefits to the challenging cannabis industry. Among the most important provision in The Capital Lending and Investment for Marijuana Businesses (CLIMB) Act, is...

Marijuana banking legislation will not be included in the final version of the United States Innovation and Competition Act (a/k/a The America COMPETES Act), bipartisan congressional members concluded, Punchbowl News first reported on Thursday. Even though the U.S. House of Representatives formally...

According to a poll released on Tuesday by the American Bankers Association (ABA), 65% of respondents said they favor allowing cannabis businesses to “access traditional banking services, like a checking account or business loan, in states where cannabis is now legal.” Only 15% of the...