Millions in cash put Washington marijuana businesses at risk

A break-in captured on video at a Seattle marijuana shop is just the latest in an increasing string of violent robberies, prompting renewed calls for Congress to authorize banks to do business with legal pot retailers, growers, and processors.

It’s understandable armed robbers are targeting pot businesses. All the retailers deal strictly in cash because most banks and other financial institutions won’t authorize credit cards or even allow accounts out of fear they’ll run afoul of federal regulations.

“The second that some banking institution gets a whiff of the fact that I’m an owner of a recreational marijuana establishment, they’ll just shut down my account,” said Ramel Williams, who owns Highway 7 in Tacoma.

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That means retailers like Williams take in thousands of dollars in cash — putting a big target on their backs.

“That’s just dangerous, dangerous circumstances,” said Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA). The southwest Washington congressman has pushed new legislation for several years that would give banks and financial institutions the OK to do business with the marijuana industry.

“I’ve been saying for three years at some point some basically innocent 23-year-old retail clerk is going to be shot dead. And I take absolutely no pleasure in the fact I was wrong — it wasn’t a 23-year-old. It was a 24-year-old,” Heck said.

That 24-year-old was Travis Mason, a Marine Corps veteran working security for a Colorado dispensary. Armed robbers stormed into the Aurora retailer in June and shot him dead, leaving behind a wife and three young children.

He was scheduled to test for a position as an officer with the Denver police department later that that month.

“So it’s not perspective, it’s not hypothetical. The danger is here now and it’s real,” Heck said.

There’s certainly no shortage of cash. Washington state retailers reported more than $347 million in sales this year alone. The parent company of Have a Heart, the Greenwood retail outlet targeted in last weekend’s robbery, reported nearly $1 million in sales in July, according to 502data.com, a website that aggregates state marijuana data.

“It’s ridiculous, and it’s discrimination we can’t get the same financial services as any other industry,” Williams said.

According to Heck, the majority of lawmakers in both the House and Senate support changes to the banking laws, but he blames conservative Republican leaders for blocking any consideration.

“We have voted for this in both chambers in different forms,” Heck said. But the proposals can’t get a hearing from the Republican chairs of several committees, including financial services, which Heck is a member of.

“So we have the majority sentiment. What we have is a constipation of the leadership on this issue.”

In the meantime, local marijuana business people like Williams can’t deposit their proceeds, get a loan or even a credit card, even though they are paying millions of dollars in taxes.

And he says there is a tremendous misunderstanding about the businesses. It’s not a bunch of stoners but a well-oiled machine.

“We’ve got our stuff together. We work really hard to contribute and protect the communities that we’re in,” Williams said.
“It’s a shame that more people don’t come in and see for themselves.”

So what will prompt lawmakers to act?

Heck says a big step is legalization votes in California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine that would increase public
pressure on Congress.

And he says it’s simply a matter of public safety and common sense.

“They’re [marijuana businesses] not looking for favors. They want to be treated the same way that all other small businesses are … so they do not have to stuff great big backpacks full of cash and transport them to some depository at the end of the work day and in the process and subject them to a lot of danger they do not have to be in,” Heck said.

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