Pubdate: Tue, 29 Dec 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

POT BANK SEEKS ACCESS TO U.S. FINANCIAL SYSTEM

DENVER (AP) - The booming marijuana industry went to a federal judge 
Monday seeking an answer to the problem that has vexed business 
owners trying to emerge from the black market: Now that pot is legal 
and taxed in some states, why can't they put the proceeds in a bank?

A Colorado credit union designed to serve the pot industry - Fourth 
Corner Credit Union - was challenging a decision by the U.S. Federal 
Reserve Bank of Kansas City to keep the pot bank from accessing the 
nation's financial system. The feds' rejection earlier this year 
means that the pot bank can't take deposits or issue credit - leaving 
many marijuana businesses operating on a cash-only basis.

"What do you want us to do with the money?" cried an exasperated Mark 
Mason, lawyer for the credit union, which was chartered by Colorado 
last year but has been unable to start taking customers.

The credit union claims that although marijuana remains illegal under 
federal law, the Federal Reserve as a quasi-government institution 
lacks the authority to keep marijuana banks out of the nation's 
financial system. Mason argued that a pot bank would serve the 
government's interest in keeping better tabs on the drug money.

"They intend to take this money out of shadows and off of the street 
so that they can track it and trace it," Mason argued.

But the Federal Reserve lawyer insisted the bank is too risky.

"It's a risk the Federal Reserve has decided they don't want to take 
on," said Scott Barker, arguing for the Federal Reserve.

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson repeatedly said he sympathizes 
with the struggling pot businesses. Jackson twice called existing 
federal guidance on marijuana money a "nothingburger," meaning that 
memos from the Treasury and Department of Justice don't solve the 
federal-state conflicts caused by legalizing pot.

But he seemed hesitant to order the Federal Reserve to give a pot 
bank access to the banking system as long as the bank is relying on 
memos from federal agencies, and not an act of Congress, to say pot 
shops should have a way to avoid dealing in cash.

"We think there ought to be banking and regulation. I get that. I 
agree with that. But that's not the legal question here, is it?" Jackson said.

The pot bank's lawyer argued that national marijuana legalization is 
inevitable, but Jackson retorted that the pot bank should take up its 
problem with Congress and not the courts.

"If I were in the Congress, I'd vote for you, but I've got to do the 
job of a federal judge here," Jackson said.

The judge repeatedly tried to encourage the sides to work something 
out themselves, perhaps by agreeing that Fourth Corner would serve 
only people who believe marijuana should be legal, not taking money 
from businesses that sell pot.

Jackson pointed out that hundreds of banks already do take pot 
proceeds, even if they sometimes pretend they don't know what they're 
doing. For example, the state of Colorado uses Wells Fargo bank, 
meaning that tax proceeds from the sale of marijuana goes into the 
nation's banking system already.

"I think there's a certain unfairness to allowing these big banks to 
serve this business and keeping you out.

"But it's not for me, I don't think, to decide issues of fairness or 
policy. My job is to enforce and apply the law," Jackson said.

The judge has no deadline to decide the case. He joked that if he 
issued a ruling Monday, the losing side would file an appeal "before 
I could go home and watch the Broncos game tonight."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom