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

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

#211

Post by killdozer »

TrackerFF wrote: post #156

The elephant in the room is that right wing politics intersects with a certain group of people that will never ever approve liberalization of cannabis (or any drug for that matter), and will lobby hard against it. This is not only the case for USA - but something you see in other countries. Maybe something more specific to the US, would be the people and corporations that benefit from keeping cannabis illegal, and th…

`Sometimes market liberalization and conservative thinking does not go hand in hand. ` I would say it never has, but that the market liberalization and social conservative wings of the larger conservative party had an uneasy truce and their ultimate goals were always in conflict. Looking at the current conservative movement in the US and how they're pushing back against capital for being "too woke" (whatever that means) it's clear (at least to me) that the market liberalization wing lost a lot of power and doesn't seem to have too much pull anymore.

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

#212

Post by greggarious »

Scoundreller wrote: post #134
greggarious wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada does a lot of things.

Mostly resource extraction and real estate financial engineering. Increasingly the latter.

Without tone of voice, it’s hard to tell if you’re doing sarcastic finger quotes on the internet.

I wouldn’t call using the office of the privacy commissioner as cover for CSIS “resource extraction” or “financial engineering”, but I’ll give them credit, they are quite good at playing dumb.

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

#213

Post by zdragnar »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #203
zdragnar wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is unreasonable for them to have blocked it, for the simple reason it would allow banks to engage in businesses that are violating federal law. The only true policy is a coherent policy- anything else is just the whims of whoever holds executive fiat. It should just be fully legalized.

Encouraging legal businesses to deal in cash outside of the standard Federal banking system (with its various AML/CTF protections) seems like it's a bad thing, at least if one believes bank compliance is an important goal.

They aren't legal businesses per federal law. Federal law needs to bring them into compliance (i.e. pot should be reclassified) and the issue goes away, because then you don't have to carve out mandates to banks to work with them.

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

#214

Post by StanislavPetrov »

labrador wrote: post #177

The local dispensary in San Jose CA just started accepting debit cards and I was able to make a purchase with mine.

In Massachusetts they've been accepting debit cards for some time now (at least 2 years if my memory serves me).

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

#215

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ratorx wrote: post #174
gamegoblin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does suck, but it's what the system of democracy we currently have incentivizes. I've kind of become a bit of a voting reform absolutist for this reason. Publicly funded elections, get rid of first-past-the-post plurality voting (and replace with approval, ranked choice, anything really), electoral college reform, Wyoming rule, etc. If these problems were fixed, the incentives to solve the other problems are much…

I think the problem is more fundamental than that. There’s no mechanism in the system for feedback on improving the system itself because it would disadvantage the people who have been elected by the current system (since those are the people that have figured out how to exploit it the best). The only current method would be to somehow convince the people in power that they will need to overhaul the system to stay in…

What’s the Wyoming rule?

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

#216

Post by dragonwriter »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #99
scifibestfi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sucks how everything is a political football instead of just doing the right thing. They had full control and could have legalized it. But no, they keep holding onto just to drag voters along every election.

Similar is true of abortions. The majority/control was there - more than once - and despite knowing Roe v Wade was on shifting sands the Dems refused to act. The issue empowers The Politics Industrial Complex but does little to work for We The People. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/im-your-biggest-fan/

> Similar is true of abortions. The majority/control was there - more than once - and despite knowing Roe v Wade was on shifting sands the Dems refused to act.

Act how?

Unlike marriage (where the FFC clause gives Congress an explicit power), the “codify Roe” refrain was always hollow since without Roe being a 14th Amendment right there is no real Constitutional argument for authority for federal codification.

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

#217

Post by matthewdgreen »

zdragnar wrote: post #213
matthewdgreen wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encouraging legal businesses to deal in cash outside of the standard Federal banking system (with its various AML/CTF protections) seems like it's a bad thing, at least if one believes bank compliance is an important goal.

They aren't legal businesses per federal law. Federal law needs to bring them into compliance (i.e. pot should be reclassified) and the issue goes away, because then you don't have to carve out mandates to banks to work with them.

We agree! But carve-outs for banking activity are [eta: more] politically feasible in the short term and full legalization (regrettably) seems to be much farther off. The question is whether it’s better to be consistent and risk more short-term criminal activity or to solve the immediate problem.

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

#218

Post by scarface74 »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #103
scifibestfi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sucks how everything is a political football instead of just doing the right thing. They had full control and could have legalized it. But no, they keep holding onto just to drag voters along every election.

It sucks how uneducated about basic things US voters are. The Affordable Care Act is probably the most impactful law passed by Democrats in the recent past. In a survey of 2000 voters, a staggering thirty-five percent did not know [1] that the ACA and the colloquial "Obamacare" were the same thing. Bizarrely, an additional number didn't know that 'Obamacare repealed = ACA repealed'. I cannot blame either party for pl…

Or a senior citizen on Medicare complaining about they don’t want government run healthcare.

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

#219

Post by worik »

wishfish wrote: post #189
perardi wrote: post #141

This is frustrating, because I think it’s a near certainty marijuana will be legalized federally. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, certainly not enough to mess with prediction markets, I’d call myself 95% certain. All this ambiguity is just grinding inefficiency in the meantime. Look at all that states where this is legal or decriminalized: https://disa.com/maps/marijuana-legality-by-state And even in states wh…

We have something very close to national legalization right now. Fortunately, it seems to be flying under the radar so red state legislatures aren't acting against it. By "legalization", I'm talking mostly about THC edibles. There are now hemp-based edibles which contain as much THC as traditional MJ edibles. Legal in all states. Achieved thanks to the Hemp Act and some creative processing of hemp. It's an interestin…

If there are any dangerous ways to consume cannabis, then eating it has to rank highly.

Not actually seriously dangerous to one's health to eat cannabis on purpose. But extremely disconcerting and discombobulating if consumed accidentally.

Even on purpose it is easy to overdose. Not a lethal overdose but still deeply unpleasant.

Given that there are very few problems with smoking it (surprisingly, there should be, but the data is quite clear - few risks) this really demonstrates the moral depravity of drug laws.

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

#220

Post by worik »

eldritch_4ier wrote: post #147
perardi wrote: post #141

This is frustrating, because I think it’s a near certainty marijuana will be legalized federally. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, certainly not enough to mess with prediction markets, I’d call myself 95% certain. All this ambiguity is just grinding inefficiency in the meantime. Look at all that states where this is legal or decriminalized: https://disa.com/maps/marijuana-legality-by-state And even in states wh…

I think right now is exactly where I want weed to be in society: a taboo, not normalized in the mainstream, you get in trouble if you’re stupid with it, but otherwise if you’re just an occasional user you can get it just fine. This is pretty much perfect to me. What I don’t want is broad normalization of it. Maybe some cultures do just fine with that, but the trend is America has been to maximize the individual liber…

> And for the record: I have edibles at home. I’m not against responsible weed use at all

Then throw away those edibles (that some body might confuse with food) and replace it with the safer, much safer, dried flower.

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