This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, July 18, 2024. I'm Caleb Brown. We've been waiting a long time for the end of federal cannabis prohibition, most Americans favorite, even as most Americans can access some form of legal cannabis. The federal prohibition maintains several serious problems for those attempting to comply with the law. In his latest piece in Cato's Free Society magazine, Paul Best details two big problems that would come to an end with the end of cannabis prohibition. You talk about two big issues here with respect to our current state of cannabis prohibition the federal level. One is cash and the fact that so many retailers who sell cannabis because of federal law don't have access to a lot of banking services or the network that would otherwise allow them to not have to do that. And the other is research and the significant hurdles to research. So I want to take those in turn. So what is it, what is the status of cannabis that prevents people who are selling it legally in dozens of states from taking credit cards or other forms of payment?

the banks are afraid of the feds. There's a whole web of laws and regulations from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Controlled Substances Act that essentially make banks afraid to do business with marijuana companies, even when they are in state -authorized markets. So if you live in one of the two dozen states that now have legalized recreational marijuana, you'll notice that almost always you have to use cash whenever you pay a visit to these businesses. And what this ultimately means for these businesses, which are again, they pay taxes, they're regulated now in these state authorized markets, they have to rely on cash for their day -to -day transactions. They have a lot of cash on site. The worst part about this, aside from it being a massive headache when it comes to running a business, is that everyone knows this, including criminals. As a result of that, there have been hundreds, maybe over a thousand, just in the last few years, this has become a real problem of robberies targeting dispensaries across the West Coast, as well as in other states in the Midwest and the Northeast where legal recreational marijuana is a thing. It's become not only a huge concern for these entrepreneurs and business owners in this space, but it's also added massive cost to their business. They've had to make massive investments in everything from armed security to bollards outside of their stores to prevent cars going through the storefront, to state of the art safe deposit boxes and things like that, that really make business hard in an industry with already thin margins and a lot of competition. So it's a public safety problem. This is endangering customers employees and these businesses, but it's also just a massive headache for these businesses and their ability to operate.