SAFE banking is a bill that would allow marijuana businesses in states where marijuana is legal to work with banks without the fear of being penalized by the federal government. It’s common sense legislation that has passed the House multiple times but always stalls in the Senate. However, Schumer and the leading Democrats have been working on a “SAFE Banking Plus” bill that would do everything the initial bills had done along with expunging records of marijuana convicts.
In a debate with his Republican opponent in the upcoming election, Schumer spoke about the status of this bill.
“But we are getting very close. I am working in a bipartisan way with Democrats and Republicans to take the SAFE Banking Act, which allows financial institutions to involve themselves in cannabis companies and lend money to them—but it also does some things for justice, such as expunging a record.”
“So, expunging the records is important, and we’re getting closer. We may be able to get something done rather soon. I’m working with a bunch of Republican senators, a bunch of Democratic senators, to get something passed.”
According to Marijuana Moment, the plan is to pass the legislation after the election and have the President sign it before the next Congress comes in in January. It’s likely that Congress will be less friendly towards any marijuana legislation.
You can view the moment in the debate below, and one other section of note is the occurrence of a now-common Republican fear-mongered talking about that is stated by Joe Pinion when he speaks of his reluctance to legalize marijuana.
“…we now have people that are trying to smoke marijuana and are going to drop dead.”
This is in reference to rumors of cannabis laced with fentanyl. Almost all of these occurrences have proven to be unfounded.
