This article by Johnny Green was originally published on The Bluntness, and appears here with permission.
The emerging United States legal cannabis industry is facing many hurdles, with one of the biggest hurdles being a lack of access to the nation’s banking system. The problem is not as great as it once was, however, it’s still a major issue for many cannabis companies and the cannabis industry will never reach its full potential without adequate banking options.
Too many cannabis companies, especially those who ‘touch the plant’, are completely locked out of using any banking options at all. Instead of depositing money like any other state-legal entity, those cannabis companies have to transport and store large amounts of cash making them a huge target for people with nefarious intent.
For the lucky companies who do initially get a bank account, the banking access often proves to be short-lived, with the account being shut down. Cannabis companies getting their bank accounts canceled with little to no notice is unfortunately a common phenomenon, and those companies are then left scrambling to look for other options.
We are not talking about small potatoes here. It is estimated that the legal cannabis industry in the United States sold as much as $21.6 billion in cannabis products in 2020. The State of California alone sold roughly $4.4 billion in cannabis flower and other cannabis products such as vaporizer cartridges, edibles, and topicals.
Colorado sold over $2.1 billion in 2020 and surpassed the $10 billion all-time mark for total legal sales within …
