SAFEBanking ACT won’t make cannabis shops safer

If the SAFEBanking Act passes in the Senate, it won’t stop the violent break-ins at marijuana dispensaries. Senators have been led to believe that break-ins are primarily for cash. Break-ins in pot shops are primarily for the products, particularly high-potency THC!

“TACOMA — The method is the same each time: A stolen car slams through the entrance of a marijuana shop, shattering glass and scattering debris everywhere. A group of masked thieves rushes in, ransacks the place and flees in another stolen car.”   

The above describes recent break-ins between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington, 5 of which occurred during the last week of October.

It’s model across the country in 2022, and the SAFEBAnking Act won’t change it.  Please oppose the SAFEBanking Act by using the attached form and sending it to your Senator.

A similar mode of operation

“They got maybe $300 worth of stuff and did thousands of dollars of damage,” the owner of The Green Lady in West Olympia told The Columbian.  

From Oakland to Los Angeles, rings of thieves act in a similar way, using vehicles to destroy buildings.  They may shoot security guards who stand in the way, but there’s no evidence of going after the cash. 

A father-son duo who targets pot shops in St. Louis also targets gun shops. In both the gun stores and pot stores, they take the products, not the cash.

In San Diego, intruders stole $300,000 worth of cannabis products and computers, but the article never mentions cash.

American Bankers Association supports the SAFE Banking Act

Hundreds of banks across the country provide banking services to marijuana companies,  without the SAFEBanking Act.

The American Bankers Association supports the SAFEBanking Act, but why does the ABA support it? 

If SAFEBanking passes, it may attract investors and drive up corporate stock prices for a short period of time.   BIG MARIJUANA and BIG TOBACCO want their stock prices to rally. 

Canadian investors lost $131 billion dollars investing in the cannabis industry.  Their bankers gave them loans. Can’t we learn from Canada’s mistake?   Shouldn’t senators be skeptical of the bankers who brought us the great recession of 2008?    

Greed and addiction drive the desire for more drugs

If a pot-legal state doesn’t provide loans to help its weed industry, why wouldn’t the dispensaries have a huge vault hidden from public view?   What pot shop doesn’t use cash stations and ATMs?

Black market dealers who don’t pay licensing fees will still covet the products sold in pot stores, if the SAFEBanking Act passes.  Last year, a thief took $30,000 worth of concentrates from a Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary.

When guards get murdered at pot shops, money is rarely the main reason for the theft.  Greed and addiction drive the desire to get products for free, or for lower prices. People want products without paying for them, and they will murder guards to get these products.  It happened in Chicago’s Greektown, recently. 

People should think of the parallels with jewelry stores.  The merchandise is so valuable, so why would criminals want the cash first?    The need for SAFEBanking Act is just one more lie to get marijuana commercialization on a national level.