We’ve done a similar story a few months ago, but with the ever changing nature of the administration and the vagueness in which the topic is discussed, it’s worth checking back in on.
So does cannabis have any big shot this year? Simple answer seems to be no. Trump doesn’t really like talking about marijuana unless he needs to score some young voter cred, and at this point he’s pretty good on the cred. Young people are leaned more towards him than they did in 2020, and a general shift, especially for young males, seems to be afoot. So with that in mind, Trump probably feels he can stay away from marijuana and allow his more prude allies to quietly block action, like Virginia Governor Youngkin did last week.
But what about on the banking side? A recent article at MJBizDaily went into detail about the potential, and have found more willingness from financial institutions to work with the marijuana industry, especially in legal states. Also, there are more and more alternative lenders that are created specifically to lend money to marijuana businesses. So the gaps of funding still certainly persist, but each year people are finding a way to make them more and more narrow.
The rest of the news is scattershot. There seems to be zero enthusiasm to bring about another banking bill into the Senate, however Pennsylvania looks to be gaining steam towards legalization due to the Governor making it a part of his proposed budget for this year. No state has ever legalized through legislation, but with a democrat majority, perhaps PA has a chance. They have a pretty mature medical marijuana market there already, so it wouldn’t be a step taken out of thin air.
Wisconsin also has a possibility of legalizing, but just the medical side, which is a much easier ask for the Republicans in office. Besides that, we’ll probably have to wait for the midterms (coming in just a year, can you believe it).
Read the MJBizDaily article here.
