California Trying To Make Banking Accessible For Legal Marijuana Business

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California's State Treasurer John Chiang is proposing something big: a public bank option for marijuana businesses. 

With legalized recreational marijuana on the horizon for California, Chiang wants to make sure all that money will have a place to go. 

Based on a series of reccomendations proposed by a year of meetings, a courier service would bring money earned by dispensaries and legal marijuana stores to the state, and the state would become the party that interacts with the banks. Essentially, California authorities act as a proxy between marijuana business owners and the banks. 

Under Chiang's plan, armored vehicles would pick up the cash from marijuana businesses, and then take that money to a secure counting facility. 

The cash would then be transferred to a federal reserve facility, or financial institution who is willing to "accept the cash as deposits to state accounts."

Federal law currently requires banks that accept deposits from businesses that sell cannabis products must certify that those businesses are not selling to minors, affiliated with organized crime, along with a number of other rules that make most banks avoid the industry. 

Businesses will begin selling legal recreational marijuana to adults over the age of 21 beginning on Jan. 1st. 


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