Will you be able to buy legal weed in N.J. with a credit card?
By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
WASHINGTON — As more and more states legalize marijuana, their nascent cannabis businesses are running into a problem.
Since cannabis remains illegal on the federal level, dispensaries and other cannabis-related enterprises can’t open bank accounts, accept checks or take credit cards. They can’t give their employees pay checks because they don’t have an account to draw them against. It’s a cash-only business.
“The current conflict between state and federal law has created a cloud of legal uncertainty for community banks, inhibited access to the banking system for cannabis-related businesses, and created a serious public safety concern,” Gregory Deckard, who heads a bank in Spokane, Washington, where cannabis is legal, told the House Financial Services subcommittee on consumer protection and financial institutions.