DENVER — A bill to establish a financial services co-operative to serve licensed marijuana dispensaries in this state cleared the Colorado House and has moved on to the Senate.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Singer (D-Boulder), breezed through the House but faces an uncertain future in this state’s Senate.
HR 1398 has already encountered a stiff challenge, gutted during one of the hearings by Colorado's Committee on Business, Labor, Economic and Workforce Development, and then reinstated in the following committee meeting.
Rep. Libby Szabo (R-Arvada), the ranking member of the House Business, Labor, Economic and Workforce Development Committee, which first debated the bill, told the Denver Post, "We had less than 24 hours to review a complex 43-page bill that will drastically impact the marijuana industry in our state. I agree we need to find a solution, but we were not elected to pass bills based solely on good intentions.”
Szabo was one of two votes against moving the bill along in House committee hearings; the other was Rep. Dan Nordberg (R-Colorado Springs).
Rep. Chris Holbert (R-Parker) added, "Failing to give a bill of this magnitude proper vetting is truly reckless and beneath the respect this new industry deserves."
Holbert initially voted in favor of the bill while in committee, then against it when it made it to the floor of the House.
The bill’s supporters agree the effort is little more than an attempt to place federal authorities on notice that they must address the problem of licensed marijuana dispensaries having no access to financial services.
In February, federal authorities took their most forceful step yet toward bringing state-licensed marijuana businesses into the financial mainstream when the
Senate sponsor Pat Steadman (D-Denver) said he reluctantly agreed to chaperone the bill through his branch of the legislature, unconvinced it would have an easy or successful outcome.
"I had a similar bill a couple of years ago, and it was very difficult, the banking lobby fighting it tooth and nail," Steadman told the Denver Post. "I just don't think we can solve the problem in Denver. But we need to try."
The cooperative would create a financial institution that would allow licensed marijuana dispensaries to put their money in a regulated institution where they could get their cash into the Federal Reserve system, said Chris Myklebust, Colorado commissioner of financial services, a technical adviser on the bill.
Myklebust said the cooperative would remove the argument over whether CUs or banks in this state should accept deposits from licensed marijuana dispensaries.
"We have been very careful to make sure no one will confuse this cannabis credit cooperative with a credit union," Myklebust told Credit Union Journal. "It would be formed under an article of Colorado law. There is no reference to a common bond or anything that would confuse it with a credit union. It is taxable at federal, state and local levels, and most important, it is uninsured.”
Myklebust pointed out that banks and CUs have not accepted deposits from marijuana dispensaries because under federal law they could be criminally liable for the actions of the dispensaries' customers.
Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, marijuana businesses in the 20 states that allow the drug's sale for medicinal or recreational purposes often have a hard time finding financial institutions that are willing to be their partners.
Consequently, marijuana merchants often act as cash-only businesses. This has sparked
Previous efforts in Colorado to establish a state-chartered bank and a medical marijuana cooperative to serve the marijuana industry failed.
