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Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

usatoday.com

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Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#41

Post by quickthrowman »

acapybara wrote: post #2

For these businesses, I'd set up something like a myNode [1] or a RaspiBlitz [2]. This way, all the merchant needs is an internet connection. Granted, customers will need something like BLW [3]. If they've got no other options to pay the merchant, then that should be sufficient. Accept either physical Federal Reserve Notes, or decentralized electronic payments. 1. https://mynodebtc.com/ 2. https://shop.fulmo.org/rasp…

How would you deal with the currency risk inherent in dealing with cryptocurrency? Assume that the landlord, vendors, tax man, and employees all want USD from you, and do not accept cryptocurrency as payment.

Please explain how you would protect yourself from adverse price movements in cryptocurrencies as a merchant to ensure you have enough USD to pay all your obligations.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#42

Post by sidlls »

nonethewiser wrote: post #28
tyre wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the US fought a war over slavery. The "states' rights" framing of the US Civil War skips over which specific right the southerns states were willing to die for. It wasn't abstract, though it was papered over as such. The history of later southern political leaders (e.g. Richard Russell) confirms that the fundamental issue was the enslavement (ideal, for them) or segregation and oppression of blacks in the US. Whi…

> No, the US fought a war over slavery. Seems to me these aren't mutually exclusive. I find your argument to be overly concerned with injustice of slavery. No one is defending it. And the southern states absolutely did not want to adhere to the laws set by the northern states.

The context is important: southern states were fighting specifically for the right to continue to enslave people. Any argument that doesn't focus on slavery in the context of the civil war we had isn't valid, or at least is incomplete, because it elides the reason for the war in the first place.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#43

Post by gamegoblin »

Doubtme wrote: post #22
gamegoblin wrote: post #16

Prediction: Dems will make a move on federal legalization in the months before the 2024 presidential election, or at least make federal legalization a major election issue. A lot of right wing / libertarian adjacent people were hoping Trump would come out in favor of it as a 2020 election issue, to outflank Biden on at least one issue. It didn't happen, but I bet it would have made the election a bit closer -- it wou…

Cannabis banking came up on this 1.7 trillion dollar bill that just got passed. It wasn't included thanks to Republicans.

I think the correct strategic move would be to make it an issue in the months before the election, and try to force the R challenger to come out strongly against it. I would not expect any serious boat rocking right now due to where we are in the political cycle.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#44

Post by Scoundreller »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #27

UN has moved to stop resticting it's use for medicinal purposes, but it is still banned for private consumption. As a signatory to the UN drugs convention, US has voted againsy decriminalisation. This is a clumsy summary, ANAL https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1079132

Welp, Canada has ignored that convention and has yet to receive the first or final steps of a UN response: a strongly worded letter.

Safe to say we can all ignore that treaty with impunity.

edit: Oh and the sky didn’t fall either. If anything, the opposite: marijuana isn’t a cool edgy thing anymore. You just do it if you want to, or don’t if you don’t.

The black market still exists, but prices have cratered, so assuming black market demand is unchanged (it’s probably lower), the criminal element has shrunk in size.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#45

Post by irusensei »

sethd wrote: post #9
acapybara wrote: post #2

For these businesses, I'd set up something like a myNode [1] or a RaspiBlitz [2]. This way, all the merchant needs is an internet connection. Granted, customers will need something like BLW [3]. If they've got no other options to pay the merchant, then that should be sufficient. Accept either physical Federal Reserve Notes, or decentralized electronic payments. 1. https://mynodebtc.com/ 2. https://shop.fulmo.org/rasp…

I believe you’re being downvoted because the solution you’re proposing does not handle any of the problems solved by a bank.

They are being downvoted because majority of hacker news audience hates Bitcoin.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#46

Post by Spooky23 »

tyre wrote: post #23
funstuff007 wrote: post #3

Didn't we fight the bloodiest war in the history of this country based on which laws (State or Federal) had primacy? And it's still not settled due to Obama's weed policies.

No, the US fought a war over slavery. The "states' rights" framing of the US Civil War skips over which specific right the southerns states were willing to die for. It wasn't abstract, though it was papered over as such. The history of later southern political leaders (e.g. Richard Russell) confirms that the fundamental issue was the enslavement (ideal, for them) or segregation and oppression of blacks in the US. Whi…

Like most complex things, there’s no one magical simple answer.

States rights was a huge deal from day one, to the point that the mostly forgotten original government of the United States was a confederation of nominally sovereign states, almost EU style. Under the Articles of Confederation, the US government was very weak.

Slavery was essential to southern land barons. It was not essential to northern industrialists, who were better off with immigrant labor. The issue at the end of the day is that Southern wealth was largely defined by chattel slaves - they were the human equivalent of industrial equipment. End of the day, it was about amoral consideration of preserving wealth above all else. (A lesson for any era certainly)

The problem was that the writing was on the wall - machines would replace slaves. But the owners of these big slave estates needed the political power to keep it going long enough to pivot to something new — the vision as I understand it was to build the west with slavery and realize imperialist visions with slavery in Latin America.

Wrapping this craven nonsense in high minded ideals was key for support and to get soldiers. Johnny Reb wasn’t dying for his slaves, for the most part these guys were victims of slavery in a sense as well as the wages for working class people were suppressed by enslaved people.

It’s important to fight lost cause bullshit. But the path to victory is rejecting the notion of slavery attacking the moral failure of slavery and association with it. Bikeshedding over trivia is like arguing with gun nerds over the nuances of firearms.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#47

Post by kube-system »

jjulius wrote: post #33
kube-system wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act everywhere within the US. The feds are voluntarily [0] turning a blind eye to states that have changed their own state laws... but federal law has not changed. 0: https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/305201382913275685...

Fully aware. This discrepancy is exactly what this article is about.

Which is why I'm specifically criticizing the framing of the headline. It's celebrating a victory that hasn't happened. A better headline would be "Most of America wants cannabis to be legal, but federal law still bans it."

I think that implying that it's "legal" in certain places, which has happened repeatedly over the last decade, is part of the problem. If everyone thinks cannabis is already legal, then who is going to push for federal legalization?

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#48

Post by AlbertCory »

tyre wrote: post #23
funstuff007 wrote: post #3

Didn't we fight the bloodiest war in the history of this country based on which laws (State or Federal) had primacy? And it's still not settled due to Obama's weed policies.

No, the US fought a war over slavery. The "states' rights" framing of the US Civil War skips over which specific right the southerns states were willing to die for. It wasn't abstract, though it was papered over as such. The history of later southern political leaders (e.g. Richard Russell) confirms that the fundamental issue was the enslavement (ideal, for them) or segregation and oppression of blacks in the US. Whi…

It ended up being about slavery (with the Emancipation Proclamation), and slavery was the root cause for the hatred between the states. They were also very different societies. Almost no immigrants moved to the South, for instance, and there wasn't nearly as much industry.

As another thread points out, if slavery was prohibited in all the new states from the West, it would be game over in Congress, and the slave states knew it. Hence the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

That said: "save the Union" was a much bigger motivator for Union soldiers than "abolish slavery." That's what made them volunteer.

For the Southern soldiers who mostly did not own any slaves, it was more "defending our homes and our way of life" than "states' rights."

In other words, it's more nuanced than you present.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#49

Post by gamegoblin »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21
gamegoblin wrote: post #16

Prediction: Dems will make a move on federal legalization in the months before the 2024 presidential election, or at least make federal legalization a major election issue. A lot of right wing / libertarian adjacent people were hoping Trump would come out in favor of it as a 2020 election issue, to outflank Biden on at least one issue. It didn't happen, but I bet it would have made the election a bit closer -- it wou…

Difficult to see what this comment adds to the discussion. The House is divided. So unless the GOP adopts this as their issue, the next chance for change is the next election.

The Dems explicitly did not make legalization a notable part of the 2020 national campaign. They focused on making the campaign a referendum on Trump in general and COVID in particular. This was a good strategic play.

My comment is that making the 2024 election a referendum on legalization (and a few other big issues like abortion) will likely be the good strategic play. You could imagine a future, though, where they go ignore legalization and focus entirely on abortion and other issues.

But they would risk getting outflanked on legalization by a more libertarian-minded Republican, which could cost the election due to reducing turnout of young and disillusioned voters who would otherwise go Dem.

Re: Cannabis is legal in most US states but federal laws block businesses from banks

#50

Post by sgjohnson »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #27

UN has moved to stop resticting it's use for medicinal purposes, but it is still banned for private consumption. As a signatory to the UN drugs convention, US has voted againsy decriminalisation. This is a clumsy summary, ANAL https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1079132

That convention (alongside virtually every other UN convention or resoultion) is unenforceable and can be ignored with no consequences whatsoever.
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