Did Obama just backdoor cannabis regulation? Federal banks can handle marijuana money

[TechBoyJK]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under...-let-banks-handle-pot-money-181777.html?hp=l2

So even though pot is legal in colorado, since it's not legal federally, banks can't touch the money. Obama's DOJ is saying that they will now allow it, by executive order, essentially side stepping all other federal laws about it. How does this not neuter everything that makes pot illegal and hands over authority to the states to make their own decisions?

This essentially legalizes marijuana based commerce on a federal level, does it not? Or, I should say, it allows it IF the states in which the commerce takes place allow it.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Wonder if that will let firearm owners or would be owners off the hook? One of the questions on the 4473 asks if you have ever been a user of illegal drugs...

 

[kage69]

Wow.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Wonder if that will let firearm owners or would be owners off the hook? One of the questions on the 4473 asks if you have ever been a user of illegal drugs...

Does it say "drug money"? No.

 

[Jhhnn]

The change is more promotional than real. Colorado dispensaries have been taking credit cards for some while. It's just an issue of corporate structure, of perfectly legal shell entities.

This will just let transactions proceed directly.

 

[Jhhnn]

Wonder if that will let firearm owners or would be owners off the hook? One of the questions on the 4473 asks if you have ever been a user of illegal drugs...

Heh. That's one of those tell me you love me & then you can fuck me deals, right?

Honest, officer, I didn't start smoking pot until after I bought the gun. Anybody who says different is a liar.

Only a prior conviction could prove that you lied.

 

[unokitty]

Money Laundering and The Drug Trade: The Role of the Banks

Senator Warren:

“You know, if you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to go to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life. But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night, every single individual associated with this. I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”

On 4 March 2013 HSBC announced profits of $20.6 billion in 2012 while it paid out a $3 million bonus to its CEO. This outrageous state of affairs beggars belief after HSBC has been clearly caught out engaging in activity on behalf of murderous drug lords, terrorist financing banks and brutal third world dictatorships. ...



”HSBC paid a fine, but no one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking, and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States. So, what I’d like is, you’re the experts on money laundering. I’d like an opinion: What does it take — how many billions do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate — before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”

Money-Laundering Banks Still Get a Pass From U.S.

If you or I tried to launder money, even on a small scale, we would probably go to jail. But when the employees of a very big bank do so -- on a grand scale and over many years -- there are no meaningful consequences.

DOJ has never ever brought a criminal indictment against any banker for laundering drug money. The problem the legal sellers in Colorado had is that they weren't doing enough volume and they weren't paying off the right people.

Uno

 

[Vic]

Lol

 

[Phokus]

The change is more promotional than real. Colorado dispensaries have been taking credit cards for some while. It's just an issue of corporate structure, of perfectly legal shell entities.

This will just let transactions proceed directly.

It's actually a huge issue with dispensaries because of the high risk of being robbed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/banks-say-no-to-marijuana-money-legal-or-not.html

 

[Acanthus]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under...-let-banks-handle-pot-money-181777.html?hp=l2

So even though pot is legal in colorado, since it's not legal federally, banks can't touch the money. Obama's DOJ is saying that they will now allow it, by executive order, essentially side stepping all other federal laws about it. How does this not neuter everything that makes pot illegal and hands over authority to the states to make their own decisions?

This essentially legalizes marijuana based commerce on a federal level, does it not? Or, I should say, it allows it IF the states in which the commerce takes place allow it.

Sounds like a state's rights stance to me. (R)'s should support it.

 

[sandorski]

Beginning of the Bong Bubble(tm)

 

[monovillage]

Heh. That's one of those tell me you love me & then you can fuck me deals, right?

Honest, officer, I didn't start smoking pot until after I bought the gun. Anybody who says different is a liar.

Only a prior conviction could prove that you lied.

That may work, as long as you never want to exercise your constitutional right in the future.

 

[monovillage]

Sounds like a state's rights stance to me. (R)'s should support it.

No, it's selective enforcement of the law. At any time in the future the feds can choose to prosecute, they probably will if it's a republican or a conservative.

 

[Jhhnn]

That may work, as long as you never want to exercise your constitutional right in the future.

People in Colorado no longer have the threat of prior conviction to consider. There won't be any.

That's catch 22, in reverse.

 

[Jhhnn]

No, it's selective enforcement of the law. At any time in the future the feds can choose to prosecute, they probably will if it's a republican or a conservative.

Please. By the time 2017 rolls around, cannabis legalization will likely be an infectious smash hit, a legal paradigm shift following a paradigm shift in public perception & behavior that has already occurred.

This is not Harry Anslinger's demon weed, never was. Most of America knows that to be true. America is ready to move on, put this pointless oppression behind us.

 

[unokitty]

Banks Launder Billions of Illegal Cartel Money While Snubbing Legal Marijuana Businesses

One of the primary reasons that cartels retain their enormous power is that well-known and popular banks are supporting their finances.

Bank of America, Western Union, and JP Morgan, are among the institutions allegedly involved in the drug trade. Meanwhile, HSBC has admitted its laundering role, and evaded criminal prosecution by paying a fine of almost $2 billion. The lack of imprisonment of any bankers involved is indicative of the hypocritical nature of the drug war; an individual selling a few grams of drugs can face decades in prison, while a group of people that tacitly allow -- and profit from -- the trade of tons, escape incarceration.

Seems relevant. Though, banks will apparently now also accept deposits of legal marijuana dealers in addition to the deposits from illegal dealers that they have, all along, accepted.

Uno