Will SAFE Banking Be Back? Bet on It.

The reason for hope on SAFE Banking is both obvious and irritating: It's inevitable.

The SAFE Banking Act is dead. For now.

Though many in the cannabis trade are understandably frustrated – particularly given how much hope there was the past two years that Congress had finally reached a tipping point on marijuana – it’s worth remembering that almost nothing in Washington, D.C. happens overnight.

It’s usually the opposite. That’s been particularly true in the past decade, which has seen Congress devolve into arguably the most partisan and fractured landscape in modern history, in which annual standoffs over the federal budget have become mainstays.

The reason for hope on SAFE Banking is both obvious and irritating: It’s inevitable.

That’s plain just by looking at the national map of how many states have legalized cannabis, and thus have stakeholders who are complaining to their senators and representatives about the inequities they labor under due to the federal illegality of cannabis.

And marijuana reform is perhaps one of the only truly nonpartisan topics in the capitol – the SAFE Banking Act itself is a prime example. The House version of the bill has 26 Republican co-sponsors out of the 180 representatives that championed the bill, and the Senate version has nine GOP co-sponsors accompanying the 31 Democratic sponsors.

Not only that, but the issue is a generational one, with younger Republicans such as Reps. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), and Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) openly pushing cannabis legislation, while it’s largely the older lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that tend to shy away from the issue.

In addition, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has already pledged to “go back at it next year” with SAFE.

While Schumer may have lost some credibility in cannabis circles this year with his failure to advance his own marijuana legalization bill, he’s far from the only senator who wants to see cannabis reform become a reality.

Incoming Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, for instance, campaigned hard on federal cannabis legalization this election season, and Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon have also both made cannabis reform a major priority.

On top of that, Congress just this year approved – and President Joe Biden signed into law – its first marijuana reform bill since cannabis was federally banned: The Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act.

So industry insiders can choose whichever metaphor they like – the toothpaste is out of the tube, the genie is out of the bottle – but the bottom line is that cannabis prohibition is over. The question is only when Congress will get its act together. Not if.

John Schroyer

John Schroyer has been a reporter since 2006, initially with a focus on politics, and covered the 2012 Colorado campaign to legalize marijuana. He has written about the cannabis industry specifically since 2014, after being on hand for the first-ever legal cannabis sales on New Year’s Day that year in Denver. John has covered subsequent marijuana market launches in California and Illinois, has written about every aspect of the marijuana trade, and was part of the team that built the cannabis industry’s first-ever trade show, MJBizCon. He joined Green Market Report in 2022.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest cannabis news delivered right to your inbox

The Morning Rise

Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.

 Sign up


About Us

The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis


READ MORE



Recent Tweets

Get the latest cannabis news delivered right to your inbox

The Morning Rise

Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.