Medical marijuana allows Ajay Suman, MD’s cancer patients a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain. It can be an effective treatment for his terminally ill patients, says Suman, a New York-based anesthesiologist and a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, who is qualified to evaluate patients in New York State who want to use marijuana for medical reasons.

There is still a great deal of misinformation and a lack of information surrounding cannabis banking and the related banking product of MasterCard/Visa merchant processing. Most glaring is the misinformation that the federal government is the primary obstacle to banks providing even the most basic service of a business checking account for an MRB, or marijuana-related business.

FINCANN Chief Executive Officer Nathaniel Gurien said he’s always been a risk-taker. At 65, he’s spent most of his career in global consumer electronics commerce. Although the marketplace was hyper-competitive, he succeeded by taking advantage of differences in pricing, distribution, and banking practices in international markets. He also became an active member of national banking compliance and anti-money-laundering trade associations.

It is understandable and reasonable for many folks to remain skeptical of recent claims of medical efficacy and harmless non-consequential recreational use of cannabis, given decades of pervasive messaging to the contrary. However, it is vital for today’s AML and banking professionals to understand the truth, to take timely advantage of an opportunity, and to tackle a looming and severe danger both to our communities and our financial system.

Because the cannabis industry in the United States is still technically illegal on the federal level, many banks are hesitant to accept or handle the money that is involved in this “high-risk” trade. This creates some complex problems for companies which are operating completely within regulatory guidelines; because marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) are forced to run cash-only businesses, this makes them huge targets for crime and creates frustrating, and often confusing, accounting hurdles to jump.

If you haven’t heard about the issues surrounding cannabis banking, then it’s time to get familiar. Despite being legal in some form in over 25 states, federal law still makes it hard for banks to accept money from the industry. According to federal law Marijuana is still a schedule I prohibited drug. Other drugs in this category are heroin, cocaine and LSD. Any federal bank that does business with cannabis growers, distributors or dispensaries are subject to penalization for money […]

$20.2 billion is expected to pour into California’s cannabis market in just the first year the state goes fully legal – and investors who know how to get in on the ground floor could see a small stake turn into a million-dollar windfall. We’ve narrowed the pool to three tiny companies expected to deliver once-in-a-lifetime fortunes. But once these stocks go from $1 to $10, to $20, or more… you may never see a chance like this again.

Even as Congress is expected to soon legalize hemp as a crop — with implications for activities ranging from medical treatments and construction materials to fabrics and investment opportunities — cannabis businesses have effectively been shut out of the banking business, leaving them with piles of cash and few effective ways to secure and manage it. Our guest, Nathaniel Gurien, founder of FINCANN, connects pot-related business with the so-called Cannabis Banking Financial Network, joins us to discuss those issues.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ action to rescind policies that let states’ marijuana industries proceed without federal intervention landed with a thud in the industry in Washington state and elsewhere. Sessions’ new stance will let federal prosecutors decide how aggressively to enforce federal law prohibiting it, giving added uncertainty to an industry long used to it.

Reggae star Peter Tosh’s 1975 pro-marijuana anthem called to “legalize it, don’t criticize it.” But an extremely critical edict from the Trump administration threatens to send the legalization trend up in smoke, starting with pot purveyors’ ability to open bank accounts.

As many readers may have already heard, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, the Obama-era policy that gave protection from federal prosecution for the state-sanctioned consumption, cultivation, and sale of cannabis.

Someone’s always gotta’ try and ruin a good party. Last week it was Jeff Sessions. Californian’s were granted the long-awaited right to possess cannabis for both medical and now recreational purposes and the world watched vicariously for a whole four days until someone knocked over the punchbowl.

Jan. 4, 2018, memo by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gives law enforcement the right to prosecute marijuana-related activities, even in states that have legalized these practices. Sessions maintains marijuana cultivation, distribution, possession and use have always been illegal, despite the previous administration’s policy against prioritizing prosecution of several types of cannabis-related activities in states that have legalized it.