{"id":5073,"date":"2022-03-25T17:07:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/wp-home\/?p=198207"},"modified":"2022-03-25T17:07:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T17:07:09","slug":"murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=5073","title":{"rendered":"Murder changed my mind: Pass the SAFE Banking Act now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <title>Murder changed my mind: Pass the SAFE Banking Act now | Leafly<\/title>     <!-- This is Index Exchange, a script\/\/3rd-party integration that interjects GAM. It needs to be 'ahead' of GTM in the DOM, which comes from Cephalopod. GTM loads GAM. This script needs to setup it's interjection stuff before GAM loads. --> <!-- End Index Exchange --> <!-- Quotes = strings--><!-- No quotes = boolean-->\t   <!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->                   <!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. --> <\/p>\n<p> <!-- BEGIN Sailthru Horizon Meta Information --><\/p>\n<p><!-- END Sailthru Horizon Meta Information -->  <!-- Google Publisher Tag --> <!-- End Google Publisher Tag --> <!-- Google Tag Manager --> <!-- End Google Tag Manager --> <!-- Chartbeat --> <!-- End Chartbeat --><br \/>\n <!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->   <\/p>\n<div id=\"copy_clipboard_success\" class=\"fixed top-0 left-0 right-0\">\n<div class=\"bg-white p-lg container mt-xl flex justify-between elevation-low rounded\"> <span class=\"flex items-center\">     <span class=\"ml-md\">Link copied to your clipboard<\/span> <\/span> <button id=\"copy_clipboard_close_btn\">    <\/button> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <!-- End Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->   <title>Leafly<\/title>     <title>Leafly \u00ae<\/title>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              <title>Loading\u2026<\/title>                     <\/p>\n<div class=\"bg-white fixed flex hidden inset-0 items-start md:h-auto md:items-center overflow-auto\" id=\"age-gate-container\">\n<div class=\"bg-white md:h-auto mx-auto p-lg text-sm w-full\" id=\"age-gate\">\n<p><label for=\"select-country\">Where are you from?<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"age-gate__info\">\n<p><button class=\"button\" data-testid=\"age-gate-no-button\" id=\"tou-cancel\">no<\/button><button class=\"button ml-md\" data-testid=\"age-gate-yes-button\" id=\"tou-continue\">yes<\/button><\/p>\n<p><label class=\"checkbox__label my-xl\"><span class=\"text-xs\" id=\"remember-user-label\">Remember me for 30 days. <br \/>I confirm that this is not a shared device.<\/span><\/label><\/p>\n<p class=\"error error--underage hidden\">Darn! You&#8217;re not old enough to use Leafly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"hidden age-gate__loading\">Redirecting you to<span class=\"redirect-domain\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-xs mt-auto\">By accessing this site, you accept<br \/>\nthe <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"tou-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/info\/terms-of-use\">Terms of Use<\/a><br \/>\nand <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"pp-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/info\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container my-xl\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col md:col-9\" id=\"article-content\">\n<h4 id=\"h-the-haymaker-is-leafly-senior-editor-bruce-barcott-s-opinion-column-about-cannabis-culture-and-politics\"><em>The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott\u2019s opinion column about cannabis culture and politics<\/em><\/h4>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Last Friday, Leafly published Amara Barnes\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/my-store-was-robbed-on-tuesday-were-still-recovering-from-the-trauma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">startling account<\/a> of an armed robbery at her cannabis store. Barnes is a staff member at a store in the Tacoma, Washington, region. Armed robbers hit her store\u2014for the second time\u2014on March 15. Two other nearby cannabis stores were also robbed the same day. In the past two months, more than 70 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kuow.org\/stories\/seattle-now-what-s-driving-the-pot-shop-robbery-spree\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">armed robberies<\/a> have occurred at cannabis stores in Washington state. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img alt=\"haymaker-column-logo\" class=\"wp-image-172448 has-ll lazyload\" width=\"349\" height=\"164\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.png,compress&amp;w=550 550w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.png,compress&amp;w=740 740w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.png,compress&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.png,compress&amp;w=1480 1480w\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhere is the outrage?\u201d Barnes asked. \u201cWhen and where will the next bullet land?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One day later, the next bullet landed in the body of Jordan Brown. Brown, a staff member at the World of Weed store in Tacoma, was shot and killed by an armed assailant during a robbery on Saturday night, March 19.<\/p>\n<p>Friends, family, and co-workers created a moving tribute to Brown at the temporarily closed store in the past few days.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jordan Brown was shot and killed while working at World of Weed in Tacoma on Saturday, his family tells <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KIRO7Seattle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KIRO7Seattle<\/a>. He was part of the Makah Tribe, an aspiring musician, and described as \u201ca lot of fun, very outgoing, generous, and kind.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tmydT2F6h4\">pic.twitter.com\/tmydT2F6h4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kevin Ko (@NewsWithKevin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NewsWithKevin\/status\/1506062822295281668?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>If I could snap my fingers and teleport those flowers, pictures, and \u201cRemember His Name\u201d placard, I would place them at the office door of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the Hart Senate Office Building.<\/p>\n<p>Consider his name, Sen. Booker. And consider changing your opposition to the <a href=\"https:\/\/norml.org\/act\/support-the-secure-and-fair-enforcement-banking-act-safe-banking-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SAFE Banking Act<\/a>, which would allow legal cannabis companies to work with banks and stop acting as cash-only businesses. <\/p>\n<p>I was with you in your strategic position on SAFE Banking, Sen. Booker\u2014until this week. With Jordan Brown\u2019s murder, things have changed. This bill is no longer the SAFE Banking Act. It is now the Safe Worker Act.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/my-store-was-robbed-on-tuesday-were-still-recovering-from-the-trauma\" class=\"wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-single-inline-block leafly-inline-related-story\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"border border-deep-green-alt border-l-0 border-r-0 my-xl p-md font-bold\">\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>My store was robbed on Tuesday. We\u2019re still recovering from the trauma<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-booker-s-leadership-has-been-critical\">Booker\u2019s leadership has been critical<\/h2>\n<p>Let me pay full respect to Cory Booker. The New Jersey senator has courageously led the charge for equitable cannabis legalization in Congress and at the national level. He is\u2014and has been\u2014bold, outspoken, unapologetic, and absolutely steadfast. His Marijuana Justice Act, introduced back in 2017, set the terms for today\u2019s equitable legalization debate. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\">\n<p>Sen. Cory Booker is a proven advocate for workers and legalization. The clock is ticking. Now is the time to act, Senator. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Last year Booker teamed up with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Senate majority leader, to introduce the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/chuck-schumer-senate-marijuana-legalization-bill-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act<\/a>, which would legalize cannabis nationwide and fund programs to promote equity and fairness in the industry.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Booker famously pledged to block the SAFE Banking Act (aka the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act) from passing prior to full legalization. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m telling you right now, if somebody tries in the Senate to do just a banking bill,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marijuanamoment.net\/cory-booker-vows-to-block-marijuana-banking-until-senate-passes-comprehensive-legalization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Booker said<\/a>, he pledged to \u201clay myself down\u201d to block it. America deserved a full cannabis legalization act, one that both ended prohibition and repaired the harm of the War on Drugs. (To be clear: Federal legalization would allow banks to serve cannabis companies, just like the SAFE Act.) <\/p>\n<p>But months have passed. The House is poised to pass full legalization next week\u2014for a second time\u2014with the MORE Act, its version of the Schumer-Booker bill. Meanwhile, the Senate majority leader\u2019s own legalization bill has gone nowhere. The clock is ticking. Come November, Booker\u2019s party may lose control of one or both houses of Congress. <\/p>\n<p>It is time to move. <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/vote-democrat-to-legalize-it-sen-chuck-schumer-tells-leafly\" class=\"wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-single-inline-block leafly-inline-related-story\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"border border-deep-green-alt border-l-0 border-r-0 my-xl p-md font-bold\">\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Vote Democrat to legalize it,\u2019 Sen. Chuck Schumer tells Leafly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-who-s-really-suffering-harm-here\">Who\u2019s really suffering harm here?<\/h2>\n<p>Booker\u2019s reasoning made sense to me last year. SAFE Banking seemed like a measure designed to help the comfortable, not the afflicted. I was also mindful of the legislative realities in play. Sometimes you only get one bite at the apple, and I was wary of the possibility that SAFE Banking\u2019s passage could make some Congress members less likely to vote for full legalization.<\/p>\n<p>The murder of Jordan Brown changed my mind.<\/p>\n<p>Brown\u2019s death, along with Amara Barnes\u2019 article, brought home to me the binding connection between banking access and worker safety. Access to banking isn\u2019t about making life easier for the executives at big multi-state cannabis companies. It\u2019s about protecting the right of American cannabis workers to a safe work environment. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-every-other-store-takes-debit-or-credit-cannabis-can-t\">Every other store takes debit or credit. Cannabis can\u2019t<\/h2>\n<p>Here\u2019s how the dots connect. <\/p>\n<p>Under current law, banks that open accounts for cannabis companies run the risk of breaking federal anti-money laundering statutes\u2014because cannabis remains an illegal drug under federal law. When a legal, state-licensed cannabis store can\u2019t set up a basic savings or checking account, customers can\u2019t use debit cards, credit cards, Apple pay, Venmo, or any form of payment other than cash.<\/p>\n<p>Result: Most cannabis stores are cash-only operations. Would-be thieves know that every store holds three tempting targets. Customers arrive with fat wallets, store registers hold significant cash, and the store\u2019s back room contains stacks of legal tender. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-pandemic-changed-the-world-of-cash\">The pandemic changed the world of cash <\/h2>\n<p>Add this fuel to the fire: During the past two years of the pandemic, many non-cannabis stores stopped accepting cash altogether. This was done for worker safety reasons (eliminating hundreds of touch points for virus transfer), but after a while many customers adapted and began paying with plastic out of habit. I used to hit up an ATM once every week or so. Nowadays I stop by once every month or two. I\u2019m not alone in this shift. One financial analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalworld.com\/lifestyle\/money\/atm-cash-withdrawals-see-sharp-decline-since-covid-pandemic-full-list-of-areas-with-the-biggest-fall-3426080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> last year that the pandemic had \u201cturbocharged the switch to digital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That means cannabis stores are now among the few brick-and-mortar retailers with significant amounts of cash on hand. As Amara Barnes wrote last week: When you can\u2019t use a bank, you become a bank. For those inclined to crime, cannabis stores now offer all the temptation of a bank without any of the safeguards in place to protect bank workers. To put it bluntly: The FBI ain\u2019t coming after you if you stick up a weed shop.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-remove-the-cash-remove-the-target\">Remove the cash = remove the target<\/h2>\n<p>The current wave of armed robberies we\u2019re seeing in Seattle\u2014and last year in Portland and Oakland\u2014will not stop here. It will spread to other legal states. Store owners are scrambling to protect themselves, their staff, and their customers. Armed guards are now a common sight. I passed two of them standing outside one of my local shops earlier today. The sight was both reassuring and unnerving. We shouldn\u2019t have to live like this.<\/p>\n<p><em>Get the cash out of the stores<\/em>. That\u2019s the key to the whole thing. To make that happen, cannabis stores must be able to accept non-cash forms of payment. And to make that happen, Congress must pass either federal legalization or the SAFE Banking Act. Immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Booker, new information has entered our world. The environment has changed. My position on the SAFE Banking Act changed accordingly. Yours should too. <\/p>\n<div class=\"my-xxl wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-related-articles\">\n<p><h2>More Haymakers for your mind<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"author-box\" class=\"p-lg my-xxl bg-white rounded border border-light-grey elevation-low\">\n<div class=\"mb-lg\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Barcott's Bio Image\" class=\"lazyload inline-block mr-md rounded-full border border-light-grey\"> <\/p>\n<p>Bruce Barcott<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"text-sm\">Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"text-sm font-bold underline text-green\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/author\/bruce-barcott\">View Bruce Barcott&#8217;s articles<\/a> <\/div>\n<div class=\"leafly-sailthru-signup p-lg my-xl bg-white rounded elevation-low border border-light-grey\">\n<p class=\"text-xs pt-lg\">By submitting this form, you will be subscribed to news and promotional emails from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\">Leafly<\/a> and you agree to Leafly&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/tos\">Terms of Service<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. You can unsubscribe from Leafly email messages anytime.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- Chartbeat --> <!-- End Chartbeat -->  <!--\nPerformance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https:\/\/www.boldgrid.com\/w3-total-cache\/ Served from: _ @ 2022-03-25 10:09:23 by W3 Total Cache\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Murder changed my mind: Pass the SAFE Banking Act now | Leafly Link copied to your clipboard Leafly Leafly \u00ae Loading\u2026 Where are you from? noyes Remember me for 30 days. I confirm that this is not a shared device. Darn! You&#8217;re not old enough to use Leafly. Redirecting you to By accessing this site, you accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott\u2019s opinion column about cannabis culture and politics Last Friday, Leafly published Amara Barnes\u2019 startling account of an armed robbery at her cannabis store. Barnes is a staff member&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marijuana_information"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/murder-changed-my-mind-pass-the-safe-banking-act-now.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}