I really, really dislike this man. Jeff Sessions made it even harder for California pot merchants to find a place to put their cash California's burgeoning cannabis industry, already heavily reliant on cash and detached from banks, could face even more barriers to the mainstream after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama era guidelines, known as the Cole memo, which eased federal regulation of marijuana. Sessions' decision has left California's state government and the legal pot industry scrambling for ways to handle all the cash that will come flowing in. Moving to a more regulated market should, in theory, encourage financial institutions to bank cannabis businesses, but Sessions' actions on Jan. 4 — just days after recreational adult marijuana use became legal in California — put a freeze on bank activities, leaving businesses and the financial institutions that look to support them in an even murkier state of affairs. "The withdrawal of the Cole memo really couldn't have come at a worse time, because now is the time that the types of banks and credit unions that are willing to take on more risk would have been entering the market," said Robert McVay, partner at Harris Bricken, a Seattle-based law firm with a practice group dedicated to cannabis law. "If you weren't already involved, this doesn't seem like the right time to start," he added. During Barack Obama's second term as president, then-deputy Attorney General James Cole published memos which transferred marijuana industry regulation to states and directed federal law enforcement to allow businesses compliant to the memo's requirements to operate. A 2014 memo, which complemented guidance from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN offered guidance specific to financial institutions looking to do business with compliant cannabis companies. Since cannabis is still considered illegal by federal law, providing banking services to those businesses was risky even with the tenuous protections provided by the now-defunct Cole memo. Now, California's already cash-heavy marijuana market faces a major influx of money with next to nowhere to put it. The state has already issued about 675 temporary licenses for all types of businesses from grow operations and labs to retail dispensaries and food production businesses, according to a state-run database.
Proposition 64, Adult Use Marijuna Act, was made law Nov. 9 2016. The only thing that happened in California on January 1st 2018 was a few store front pot shops opened. Very few. Very, very few.
Best stay the way it is now feds open the banks to weed the little man is gone. You will buy your weed through Amazon grown by Morgan Stanley
They will not do much. Even trump realises the financial benefits of marijuana sales. Sessions is a fool and everyone understands this. He is trying to keep the elderly people comfortable but honestly i see more old people indispensaries at times than any othrr customer. They always have a 1000s questions lol and then buy a gram haha. Even the police force is outraged when they have to protect federal agents from the public. Yes thr local police departments usually hate DEA agents.
Go to weed maps and look at California map. The whole state. There are adult use stores in the bay area, Los Angeles, San Diego, a few in Cathedral City and some in Santa Ana and I think 2 in San Bernardino. This may sound like quite a few but it leaves 90% of the 3rd largest state without access because of backwards thinking local governments. Another point I was trying to get across is everyone is saying that January 1st 2018 was the 1st day of legal recreational marijuana in California. It wasn't. Voters approved prop 64 November 9 2016. This was the first day recreational marijuana was legal in California.
As someone who grew up in Alabama, I despise most politicians that originate there, Jeff Session included. However, to blame him alone is rather short sighted. He is doing what he believes to be his job, and he is following the law. What we need isn't a lenient DOJ, it is for Congress to finally step up and make legalization a national achievement.
I think the difference is whether you are criticizing Mr. Sessions integrity or his intelligence. I find it hard to believe that an educated person could read the scientific literature on the addictive substances in use legally and illegally in the US and decide that Cannabis is a threat to the health and wellbeing in this country. I get your point on following the law, speaks to his character, but his virulence speaks to his intelligence.
Whether or not cannabis is a threat is his opinion. An opinion that many in this country still share. Just because someone disagrees doesn't make them unintelligent. Scientific literature, by the way, is kind of a joke. Name any issue, choose any stance on the issue, and I can find a scientific article to support that opinion regardless of it being "right" or not. It also still remains true that if Congress would act, Jeff Session's opinion of marijuana wouldn't matter. It isn't his job or position to make the choice of allowing legal cannabis or not. That is like getting mad at the McDonald's drive through guy because the straws are too big.
I certainly agree that congress should act, that not withstanding the fact that the reach of Washington's finest doesn't always seem to be bound by their legal authority. For instance, Mr. Sessions declaration that Federal Banking laws would continue to prohibit transactions related to cannabis. It's a zoo out there.
The relationship between Federal banking law and felony crime is completely within his authority. He isn't overstepping anything, he is too smart for that to happen. That is the reason he avoided the Russia probe like a plague.
Legalization in Cali is kind of ironic in a way. I mean everyone that smoked probably has a medical card since you can litterly get one for a hang nail.
While it is or was easy to get a med recommendation in Cali, things, they are a changin'... To get a med rec in California now you have to have your primary care physician give you a legitimate qualifying diagnosis then take that to a pot doctor to verify your diagnosis then you get your recommendation for cannabis. Easier to find an adult use permitted dispensary. If there's one near you. Oh yea, you've got to be a resident of the state. With proof, picture ID etc....
access is in excess in Cali. I can promise you that, no matter the letter of the law. has been for a long time, way before prop 215.
sessions should admit that the U.S. government grows for medical patients at the university of Mississippi. the program started in 1978 and is called the compassionate investigational new drug program. if the government literally grows for medical, then they can't hold these two opposing stances at once....growing for patients and schedule 1.
Agreed. I'm speaking more for legitimate access to the public. Without going through black market Without having to jump through med red tape hoops. Store front shops that help the average Joe. We voted to give us access to cannabis for adult use and most county a civic governments are turning a blind eye to what the majority of voters want.
I didn't vote for rec for the med red hoops reasons, it added more. had it been like Colorado and amended the state constitution very simply then it would have been a resounding yes.
I don't give a rats ass what Sessions thinks about cannabis. I don't like him for other reasons. I don't know who to replace him with, but I just don't think he's right for the job.