Pubdate: Tue, 22 Oct 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Alison Noon
Page: 2A

COUNSEL: STATE IS ALONE ON GUNS AT POT STORES

State and federal authorities have allowed marijuana businesses to
keep firearms in-house in Colorado because of the danger posed by
operating a cash-only business, a legal expert said Monday.

Jack Finlaw, chief legal counsel to Gov. John Hickenlooper, said
Colorado is alone in its tolerance of firearms at marijuana
facilities- a practice that runs contrary to recently issued federal
guidelines.

A federal rule barring banks from taking the money of criminal
enterprises, which marijuana stores are considered under federal law,
has scared banks away from doing business with the new industry in
Colorado and Washington. Without that relationship, marijuana
businesses are forced to accept cash only.

"It's really an all-cash business, and there's really a public safety
issue with businesses that are dealing with so much cash," Finlaw said
at the Inter American Press Association's 69th General Assembly.

Finlaw said John Walsh, U.S. attorney for Colorado, has been more
lenient than his counterparts in Washington, the only other state
where recreational marijuana is legal.

Federal authorities in Washington state have strictly forbidden
firearms from marijuana farms and stores, but Finlaw said Walsh "at
least understands" their use while the banking restrictions remain.

Finlaw spoke less than three weeks after Hickenlooper and Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee urged federal financial officials to exempt marijuana
facilities from the banking rule.

In late August, the Department of Justice wrote a letter to federal
prosecutors that included the department's eight expectations for
enforcement in states with legalized marijuana. One is to prevent the
use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

On Sept. 10, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole told a Senate
committee that the justice and treasury departments were brainstorming
how to work around pot shops' banking problem, but no action has resulted.
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