Banking regulations eased on medical marijuana dispensaries

It may be safer for local banks to do business with legal marijuana cultivators and dispensaries.

A set of directives issued by the Obama administration in August and February of last year have relaxed federal anti-money laundering statutes. In August of 2014, the administration directed the Justice Department to not prosecute legal marijuana dispensaries as long as they followed an eight point federal guideline plan.

In February of 2014, the Treasury Department issued new guidance that makes it easier for banks to do business with legal dispensers. The Justice Department also issued a directive for U.S. attorneys not to peruse banks that do business with legal marijuana sales. This will allow banks to participate in a new industry in the United States which is projected to see $2.75 billion of sales in 2015.

Harrisburg will see a legal marijuana dispensary open this summer and local banks may be able to offer their services to the Kirkwood Pharmacy Group, who will open HealthBuds of Harrisburg on Veterans Drive. However, this does not mean clear sailing for the banking industry or legal marijuana sales.

There is nothing to guarantee that a future administration would not reverse the Obama decisions and direct the prosecution of banks involved in what is still a federal crime. Nor, apparently, has the Rauner administration changed the state banking regulations in this regard. The Daily Register spoke to several area banks on this subject and all officially had "no comment." Unofficially, bankers expressed concern and hesitation about offering their services to this type of business.

Rosie Naumovski, Project Manager and partner of HealthBuds and KPG stated in a phone interview that area banks are interested in working with the company.

"Quite a few area banks have approached us, including a Harrisburg Bank," Naumovski said. "We have not chosen a bank and we would really prefer to do business with a local bank if they will have us."

Naumovski added that at a recent business convention, several very large, national banks had approached their company to express an interest in doing business with KPG.

In response to queries from the Daily Register, Congressman Jim Shimkus issued the following statement:

"The sale of marijuana is still prohibited under federal law. So even in states like California or Colorado, financial institutions have been reluctant to accept deposits or do business with the medical marijuana industry. Banks and credit unions fear, and reasonably so, that a wink and a promise from this Justice Department does not adequately protect them from future prosecution for their involvement in the commission of a federal drug crime. While I'm not a member of the Financial Committee, I'll continue to closely follow this debate and listen to the concerns raised by Illinois bankers."

While banks are now assured that the federal government currently looking the other way at doing business with legal marijuana dispensers, there is no long term guarantee of immunity from prosecution in the future until the federal laws on the subject are changed. Either marijuana will be decriminalized nationally or banks will be specifically allowed, under new laws, to do business with what seems to be a burgeoning new industry in America.