Colorado Cannabis CEO Welcomes New Senate Measure, Allowing Legal Marijuana Industry Access to Banking Services
Denver, Colorado (PRWEB) July 11, 2015 -- The founder and owner of one of Colorado’s oldest and largest recreational cannabis producers welcomes the bipartisan legislation introduced into the U.S. Senate on Thursday: a measure that if passed would ensure legal marijuana businesses can access badly-needed banking services.
Ryan Fox, CEO of Denver-based Kindman cannabis, says the so-called Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act of 2015 would not only eliminate the cash-only transactions that legal marijuana companies have been forced to endure, but it would also help the industry reach its full potential much faster than previously anticipated by industry observers.
One of the most obvious benefits, he says, would be the increase in efficiency the legal cannabis industry would experience almost immediately when it is freed from cash, as well as an increase in state tax revenue.
Anecdotal reports from legal cannabis companies in Colorado say those businesses usually have to devote at least five days of each month to processing cash-only transactions with their customers and with state regulators. And some legitimate marijuana companies have calculated sales revenues could increase by as much as 35 percent each month once banking becomes available to the legal cannabis industry.
The bill, according to one of its co-sponsors, also protects banks and other financial institutions from criminal prosecution, liability and forfeiture penalties for dealing with state-sanctioned, legitimate marijuana businesses.
Fox points out that, without access to banks and other federally-approved financial services, managing cash-only transactions is not only financially burdensome but also presents a wide variety of obstacles; thus cost more time and money to run a business.
“There is certainly a security risk and safety issues for my employees, as noted in the press release from (bill co-sponsor) Senator Jeff Merckley’s office,” he says.
“There are also things a normal business can do every day that we cannot,” Fox adds. “For example, setting up our account payables for monthly auto draft from a business checking account. Without the freedom to walk in to a local bank and open a business checking account, cannabis businesses are, in many regards, forced to run as inefficiently as businesses did 100 years ago.”
Banks, meanwhile, while eager to start receiving deposits from local cannabis businesses, are fearful of federal prosecution if they work with legal cannabis companies; a factor that Fox says hamstrings a company’s need to operate normally, grow and create jobs.
“A non-cannabis business can walk into their local bank, sit down with their personal banker who knows them by name and have a discussion about the best business loans and rates that will help them expand their business, create more jobs and generate more taxable revenue", says Fox.
“But in the legal cannabis industry, which is now a multi-billion-dollar industry, the phrase ‘the buck stops here’ couldn't be more accurate,” he says, “given that much of the cash that enters this industry ends up in personal safes, rather than immediately deposited back in to the central banking system.”
Fox adds that, in the 19 months since Colorado and Washington State legalized recreational marijuana for adults, the legitimate cannabis industry has been experiencing great growth, “even beyond what is normal for an emerging industry,” he says. “Try to imagine what our economic growth will really look like when we’re no longer hamstrung by the existing banking regulations.”
ABOUT KINDMAN
Established in 2009, Kindman provides customers with an unmatched cannabis product – grown in Colorado state-regulated facilities at indoor locations, using a customized process that combines food-grade nutrients and a unique soil mix that brings out the plant's best features. Close attention is paid to product cleanliness, quality, curing and processing.
Since the January 1, 2014 start of legalized sales of recreational cannabis to adults in Colorado, Kindman has provided high-quality marijuana flowers to tens of thousands of customers from over 100 countries.
For more information, visit: http://www.mykindman.com/
Tags: Marijuana, cannabis, dispensary, cannabis business, Colorado, Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act, banking, finances, marijuana and banking industry, tax revenue, Ryan Fox, Kindman
Bruce Kennedy, Life Marketing, +1 404-259-1231, [email protected]
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