"An industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, provides billions in economic benefits, and promotes safer alternatives to pharmaceuticals and commonplace vices continues to be treated like a pariah," said one cannabis entrepreneur.
Mastercard’s recent decision to prohibit the use of its debit cards at cannabis dispensaries highlights the challenges facing the legal marijuana industry. While the SAFE Banking Act would protect banks that work with cannabis businesses, it would not address the underlying issue of marijuana’s federal illegality which was Mastercard’s stated reason for the policy change. Advocates argue that comprehensive federal cannabis reform through decriminalization and legalization is ultimately needed to resolve these financial and banking issues plaguing the legal marijuana industry. Mastercard’s move demonstrates that piecemeal reforms are insufficient and that full federal decriminalization is the only sustainable solution.
I hope in my lifetime we will see federal decriminalization. Enough already!
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MasterCard is the worst. They required like 150 manual tests for an EMV certification and used their own shitty test report format and now this?!