Access to Banking is still a Major Problem for
those in the Legal Marijuana industry.

Here we are five years after Colorado became the first state to legalize Marijuana for recreational use and these business people still can't open a checking account, let alone take credit cards. While I know there are dispensaries that have allowed people to purchase with their cards, technically it's not allowed. But it doesn't take a ton to lie about what industry your business is in.

The big problem out of all of this is that business are not only forced to take cash, they also have to store it in cash! But if a bank accepted their money, it would be viewed as money laundering and subject to federal penalties!

On top of this there were periods where some state laws prevented anyone from carrying a firearm while working with marijuana. The idea was to separate the guns from the pot. But a side effect of this is that the general public now knew there were certain places that took in and stored large amounts of cash...but also couldn't be armed.

Anyone picturing a bullseye? Exactly what you think started to happen...stores being robbed.

Don't they have a Cryptocurrency they can use?

Potcoin, Hempcoin, Paragon, Metatron, Smoke.Network and CannabisCoin are some of the cryptocoins that are geared to helping solve the legal cannabis banking woes. Potcoin is the oldest, dating back to 2014 and have even gotten their logo into the mass media a time or two. (Anyone remember when Dennis Rodman visited North Korea?)

There's even been some other creations to help the banking problem such including CanPay's debit and Tokken's credit cards.

Can any of these Solutions get Adopted before it's too Late?

While there are multiple options available for dispensaries to accept and hence store their revenue, none have taken off just yet. With many people like the anonymity provided in many cryptocurrency transactions, this could actually hinder industry adoption. State regulations tend to be very tight, requiring seed to sale tracking (to report to their overseers.) Because of this, we may see an increased use of the coins that were setup to provide the needed transparency (like Paragon Coin claims) for the legal cannabis industry. With the high amount of scrutiny over this young industry, owners will likely be looking for what makes their reporting the easiest.

The BIG question however is how far off are we from the federal US government to allow dispensary owners, growers, etc to be a part of the national banking system? As legal recreational marijuana is gaining acceptance every year, and the state governments becoming used to the tax revenues taken in, we can't be terribly far off from a change in Washington D.C.'s stance.

It will be interesting to see which cryptocurrency solution starts gaining widespread adoption as well as how long it will last. I have no doubt the ease and comfort of banks are preferable. However I wouldn't be shocked to see both a crypto and fiat system be available to customers and owners in the end.

Image Sources:
Cannabis Crypto
Dennis Rodman
Canna-Ben