BOSTON (State House News Service) – A U.S. Senate committee that includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren advanced legislation Wednesday that would allow banks and credit unions to serve cannabis businesses and their workers in states where cannabis is legal, moving to the Senate floor a bill that could address a longstanding concern in Massachusetts’ marijuana sector.
Warren joined nearly all the other Democrats on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to pass S 2860, the Secure And Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act or the so-called SAFER Banking Act. The bill cleared the committee on a 14-9 vote with Democrat Raphael Warnock of Georgia in opposition and a small handful of Republicans voting in support.
“Cannabis policies look different in different states, but legal cannabis small businesses and their employees are running into many of the same issues. One of these issues is access to financial services,” committee chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said. “Regardless of how you feel about states’ efforts to legalize marijuana, this bipartisan bill is necessary — it will make it safer for legal cannabis businesses and service providers to operate in their communities and protect their workers.”
During Wednesday morning’s committee markup, Warren said she supports the underlying bill “because I think it’s common-sense policy to make sure that marijuana businesses that are legal…
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