Schumer, Booker, Wyden Join Chorus At Historic Senate Hearing On Cannabis Banking: Include Broader Reforms

The Senate Banking Committee led by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Committee Chair,  heard testimony on the SAFE Banking Act Thursday for nearly two hours before adjourning without a vote.

Opening the hearing were Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) who refiled the banking measure in April.

Under the proposed bill, financial institutions would be allowed to provide banking and financial services to legal cannabis businesses. 

Senators Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), who released a joint statement after the meeting, praised “key improvements” in the banking proposal and stressed the need for additional equity provisions such as expungement as the bill advances, reported Marijuana Moment.

Others who testified on Thursday expressed the same sentiment. 

Ademola Oyefeso, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers’ political action department, reiterated on several occasions that cannabis workers have the right to work under decent conditions where they’re not treated like criminals. He noted that the government has a chance to “get involved in a promising industry from the ground up.”

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who called the banking bill long overdue and John Fetterman (D-PA) stressed the overall importance of removing cannabis from its Schedule I status.

Fetterman asked anti-cannabis crusader Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) whether Canada had slid into anarchy after it legalized cannabis in 2018. Sabet, who when testifying or responding to Senators' questions painted a dire and dangerous picture of legal cannabis from death to addiction to dysfunction.

“Do you oppose legal cannabis because of the deaths?" Fetterman asked Sabet. "If so, what about the 120,000 annual deaths from alcohol or 400,000 deaths from tobacco? Have there been any deaths from cannabis?”

Sabet waffled slightly then resumed his talking points about high-strength THC, to which Fetterman ask “Have you ever heard of grain alcohol?”

Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance and vice chair of the Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition, also called for broader cannabis reform. “We need to address all the challenges that were created by the war on drugs and social inequity as well as banking for the cannabis industry.” She stressed the importance of small business loans and gave examples of LA’s fast-moving and difficult-to-decipher cannabis cash movement. 

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D) of Nevada added that with her state being number two in terms of cannabis sales, behind Colorado, pot shops end up having to spend the lion’s share of their earnings on security.