After Surge Of Deadly Robberies At Marijuana Shops In Washington State, Officials Push For Federal Banking Reform

Following a spate of deadly robberies targeting marijuana retailers in Washington State, officials are stepping up their push for federal cannabis banking reform—a topic that will be addressed at a roundtable next week involving regulators, lawmakers, advocates and stakeholders.

The state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) said that at least three people were killed within the span of four recent days at three different Washington cannabis retailers. But the issue isn’t unique to the state; crime and even some murders have occurred at legal marijuana shops in markets across the U.S., prompting advocates and lawmakers to demand federal reform to protect the industry and its workers from what they say are the dangers of working in a cash-driven industry where many businesses have difficulty obtaining bank accounts

LCB Chair David Postman will lead the virtual roundtable on Tuesday. Panelists will include State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti (D), National Cannabis Industry Association’s (NCIA) Michael Correia, state Sen. Karen Keiser (D) and other stakeholders.

“The tragic events of the last week and the escalation of armed robberies over the last several months have demonstrated the urgent need for Congress to act,” LCB said in a press release. “The lack of banking services has become a catalyst for a very real public safety crisis in Washington State. Due to their forced reliance on cash transactions, cannabis retailers have increasingly become targets for armed robbers.”

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"This video shows two suspects entering the marijuana dispensary Wednesday & holding employees at gunpoint. They're accused of stealing money and product. Two suspects are in custody and a third was killed exchanging gunfire with #Seattle police." – @BvuePDpic.twitter.com/mllNyL3zZz

— MJ Stock Trader (@stock_mj) March 20, 2022

The video above shows two people entering a cannabis retailer in Bellevue earlier this month and allegedly stealing money and products with workers at gunpoint. The police department said in a statement that there was also a third suspect who drove the alleged robbers through Seattle. Following a pursuit, two suspects were taken into custody and a third was fatally shot, according to King County prosecutors.

“Thus far in 2022, reports show that there have been over 50 robberies of cannabis businesses, many of them armed, in Washington State. This surpasses the number of robberies in all of 2021,” LCB said. “The roundtable is an opportunity for state leaders, policy makers, regulators and law enforcement to hear directly from participating retailers as well as to share information that could help.”

The police bodycam footage above shows another perspective from the armed standoff between law enforcement and the suspects in the Bellevue robbery.

“These robberies are tragic but they’re also preventable,” Pellicciotti, the state treasurer, told KOMO News. “People rob where the cash is. If we get cash out of this industry there will be fewer robberies. These robberies are preventable and this is a common-sense approach to making our communities safer.”

The regulator-hosted roundtable will take place on March 29 and can be viewed online or listened to via phone.

At a recent National Association of State Treasurer (NAST) conference, Pellicciotti led a panel focused on cannabis banking reform and, specifically, the bipartisan Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act that’s being sponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO).

Tonight: State Treasurer Pellicciotti talks to @KING5Seattle about the tragic but preventable armed robberies occurring at alarming rates at Washington’s #Cannabis retail stores. WATCH NOW: https://t.co/C4dWqh6ySg#SAFEBankingAct

— WA State Treasurer (@WaTreasurer) March 18, 2022

That bill has passed the House in some form six times at this point, but it has yet to advance in the Senate under Republican or Democratic control. It’s been a point of significant frustration for the sponsor and advocates, who have repeatedly talked about the public safety consequences of isolating marijuana businesses from the federal financial system.

Correia, director of government relations for NCIA and a panelist on next week’s roundtable, told Marijuana Moment that the organization’s “number one priority continues to be for Congress to pass the SAFE Banking Act without further delay.”

“The Senate’s inaction on banking has resulted in unnecessary and senseless violence and deaths in communities across the country, including in Washington State,” he said. “Every day that Senate leadership chooses to play politics rather than provide financial services to the cannabis industry and its employees continue to provide ample opportunity for criminals to prey on these compliant, legal businesses.”

This is exactly why I am in DC this week to urge Congress to pass #cannabisbanking this year. This was preventable and we all agree on the solution. Congress cannot delay in passing cannabis banking reforms any longer.- MP #SAFEBankingActhttps://t.co/v8hRhNrzf0

— WA State Treasurer (@WaTreasurer) March 16, 2022

Colorado Treasurer Dave Young also talked about the “huge danger” that his state’s marijuana market faces during an interview with Marijuana Moment this month.

“You’ve got large amounts of cash moving around. And so you’ve got robberies, you’ve got violence,” he said. “And even, my understanding is, there’s been murder in in the midst of that. Not doing something isn’t going to improve that situation.”

Perlmutter, for his part, is committed to getting something done before his retirement. He’s even made a point to talk about enacting the reform legislation during committee hearings on ostensibly unrelated or wider-ranging legislation, like at a recent House Rules Committee hearing.

Thank you! I appreciate the support and advocacy of @WaTreasurer and @StateTreasurers across the country who continue to push for #SAFEBanking for their businesses and communities. https://t.co/mdxL5QDqbM

— Rep. Ed Perlmutter (@RepPerlmutter) March 15, 2022

At a recent event hosted by the American Bankers Association (ABA), the congressman said that he will “continue to be a real pest, and persistent in getting this done” before he leaves Congress.

Following the bipartisan House passage of the banking bill, Perlmutter said he naively expected it “to sail through the Senate, which is always a bad assumption, because nothing sails through the Senate.”

But he’s taken pains to build support, including from current Senate leadership that has insisted on enacting comprehensive legalization with firm equity provisions in place before advancing a bill viewed as friendly to the industry.

Despite recently saying that he’s “confident” that the Senate will take up his bill this session, the congressman recognized that while he’s supportive of revisions related to criminal justice reform, taxation, research and other issues, he knows that “as we expand this thing, then we start losing votes, particularly Republican votes and we got enough votes in the Senate to do it” as is.

Perlmutter also brought up the fact that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has addressed the federal-state marijuana banking conflict and “she wants to get this off her plate and get it done.”

Ahead of the ABA event, the financial group released a poll that it commissioned showing that a strong majority of Americans support freeing up banks to work with marijuana businesses without facing federal penalties.

Meanwhile, the number of banks that report working with marijuana businesses ticked up again near the end of 2021, according to recently released federal data.

It’s not clear if the increase is related to congressional moves to pass a bipartisan cannabis banking reform bill, but the figures from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) signal that financial institutions continue to feel more comfortable servicing businesses in state-legal markets.

Some Republicans are scratching their heads about how Democrats have so far failed to pass the modest banking reform with majorities in both chambers and control of the White House, too. For example, Rep. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized his Democratic colleagues over the issue in December.

In the interim, federal financial regulator Rodney Hood—a board member and former chairman of the federal National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)—recently said that marijuana legalization is not a question of “if” but “when,” and he’s again offering advice on how to navigate the federal-state conflict that has left many banks reluctant to work with cannabis businesses.

Hawaii Senators Amend Psilocybin Study Resolution To Make Access Contingent On Federal Approval

Oakland Lawmaker Will Sponsor Psychedelics Decriminalization Measure, Activists Say

Activists in Oakland, California say they’ve secured a City Council sponsor for a resolution that would block the police department and other officials from participating “in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for the personal use and personal possession of” psychedelic drugs.

The measure would also instruct the city’s state and federal lobbyists to “work in support of decriminalizing” plant- and fungi-based entheogenic substances such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine and cacti.

Decriminalize Nature, the campaign behind the resolution, has at this point met with the offices of four out of eight City Council members, with additional meetings scheduled for the coming weeks. Larry Norris, the campaign’s co-founder and steering committee member who helps run educational outreach, told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview that their resolution has generally been well-received and the group is hopeful it will be taken up for a vote as early as May.

“The way that we’re talking to the City Council members is really just talking about this as a community-based resolution,” Norris said. “We’re talking about the health and wellness possibilities, we’re talking about the medical possibilities, we’re talking about the spiritual possibilities.”

While Councilmember Noel Gallo (D) agreed to sponsor the resolution, according to Norris, it could also get a powerful cosponsor: Rebecca Kaplan (D), the president of the Council. A recent meeting with Kaplan’s chief of staff apparently went well, the activist said, with talks about possible cosponsorship set to continue.

Marijuana Moment reached out to the offices of Gallo and Kaplan for comment, but representatives were not immediately available.

The campaign was inspired in part by efforts underway in Denver and Oregon to reform laws around psilocybin mushrooms. Next week, Denver residents will vote on an initiative to decriminalize psilocybin, and activists in Oregon are collecting signatures to legalize the substance for medical use for the state’s 2020 ballot.

But Decriminalize Nature’s resolution goes beyond psilocybin, broadly covering all “entheogenic plants and plant-based compounds” that appear on the list of Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substance Act. Norris said the group’s reasoning for including all of those substances is somewhat philosophical.

“We wanted to have a deeper conversation about nature,” he said. “With all of these general philosophical concepts in mind, we decided that rather than just do a one-off approach—which means 10, 20 years down the road, we’re finally getting to the next one or the next one—rather than take that longer approach, we’re already going to be bringing a new idea to people. Why don’t we do everything on Schedule I because, as far as I can see, they can all be valuable in different ways.”

Decriminalize Nature’s next steps will involve more educational outreach but, rather than have community members come to their events, the group will visit “different communities” to explore their interest and address their concerns.

If the campaign is successful, the group plans to help activists in other cities advance psychedelics reform, using their resolution as a model. While Decriminalize Nature activists were drafting the document, the group connected with organizers in places like Seattle, Los Angeles and Monterey who expressed interest in pursuing similar plans for their cities.

Check out the #DecriminalizeNature#Oakland resolution! If successful in Oakland we look forward to assisting other communities in bringing this resolution to their cities/counties/states nationwide. #Seattle#LosAngeles#SanDiego#Berkeley#Detroithttps://t.co/69z9QY99Ua

— Decriminalize Nature (@DecrimNature) April 14, 2019

“It became clear pretty quickly that it wasn’t just an Oakland-based thing—even though it’s our beautiful Bay Area community—but that it expanded out and people were hungry from this new vision,” Norris said. “I think for most of us, our focus would be: let’s do it right in Oakland so we can become a model not just in how to do policy but how to build a successful policy.”

Down the line, the group hopes to work with California lawmakers on statewide decriminalization. The hope is that these city-level reform efforts will start the conversation and get people more familiar and comfortable with reforming psychedelics laws.

Read the key parts of Decriminalize Nature’s proposed Oakland resolution:

“WHEREAS, the City of Oakland wishes to declare its desire not to expend City resources in any investigation, detention, arrest, or prosecution arising out of alleged violations of state and federal law regarding the use of Entheogenic Plants; NOW THEREFORE BE IT

RESOLVED, That the Mayor and City Council hereby declare that it shall be the policy of the City of Oakland that no department, agency, board, commission, officer or employee of the city, including without limitation, Oakland Police Department personnel, shall use any city funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for the personal use and personal possession of Entheogenic Plants by adults; AND BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED, That the Oakland City Council directs the City Administrator to instruct the City’s state and federal lobbyists to work in support of decriminalizing all Entheogenic Plants and plant-based compounds that are listed on the Federal Controlled Substances Schedule 1; AND BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED That the Mayor and City Council hereby declare that it shall be the policy of the City of Oakland that the investigation and arrest of adult persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, and/or possessing Entheogenic Plants or plant compounds on the Federal Schedule 1 list shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Oakland; AND BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED That the Mayor and City Council call upon the Alameda County District Attorney to cease prosecution of persons involved in the use of Entheogenic Plants or plant-based compounds on the Federal Schedule 1 List”

The First Vote To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms Is Happening Right Now

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.