Senator Kyrsten Sinema | alternet.org
Senator Kyrsten Sinema | alternet.org
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema, along with U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), introduced the bipartisan Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act – legislation that ensures legal medicinal and recreational cannabis businesses in Arizona have access to banking and insurance services.
“We’re providing safety and security to Arizona communities by ensuring legal businesses have access to banking services,” said Sinema, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
The SAFE Banking Act strengthens public safety. Without access to banking services, cannabis businesses are often forced to do business in cash and keep large volumes of cash on their premises. Criminals know this, making cannabis businesses targets for robberies and other crime.
Most state legal medicinal and recreational cannabis businesses are denied access to the banking system because banks fear they may be prosecuted under federal law given the ongoing restrictions on cannabis. The Sinema-backed bipartisan bill ensures cannabis businesses have access to banking and insurance services, which will strengthen public safety and protect banks from penalties or prosecution for providing banking services to legal cannabis businesses.
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