Why is it so Difficult to Get Approved for a Loan as a Cannabis Employee?

Covid-19 has left many people a little short on cash this year. While many are simply trying to keep their heads above water financially, others are looking to the holidays and have begun maxing out their credit cards and seeking out small loans. As long as you have good credit, a stable residence, and a solid job, you should be fine when it comes to getting that extra cash to help out with bills or seasonal festivities this year. Unless you work with cannabis, that is.

This even applies to ancillary businesses. If you work with the plant in any capacity, you may find that it is hard, basically impossible, to get a loan from the bank or even a private lender. This isn’t just true regarding small loans, but also larger loans like home mortgages. When cannabis employees are denied mortgages through traditional lenders, they are forced to seek out alternative sources.

Why is Borrowing Money So Difficult? 

Current federal regulations regarding cannabis are paving the path for private lenders to take advantage of hard-working Americans. When a person can’t get a loan through traditional avenues such as the bank, they often turn to the private sector looking for loans. These loans can come with excessive interest rates that some people may not understand or are forced to overlook in order to maintain their way of life.

These outdated regulations have also left a negative stigma attached to those employed in the legal cannabis industry. Banks and lenders tend to avoid giving loans to those who work with the green for many reasons. The biggest is because the cannabis industry, no matter how legal it is on a state level, is still illegal on a federal level. Banks run the risk of getting flagged for money laundering if they cater to cannabis workers. A bank’s money is FDIC insured. That insurance has the potential of becoming null and void when a bank accepts “drug money,”, which is still what the US government considers revenue from state-legal cannabis industries. Unless it’s their IRS agents who demand cash payments from cannabis business owners each year like some sort of old mob tactics from the golden age of yesteryear.

Denying Cannabis Employees Loans is Discriminatory 

In order for the draconian stance on cannabis prohibition to change, the plant needs to be legalized. While governments anchor themselves to make millions and billions of dollars off of cannabis, they are building their empire on the backs of countless hard-working citizens. Citizens who have fought the tyranny of these tyrants with their so-called “war on drugs” or as many like to call it, their attempted eradication of cannabis, in which many have given their lives.

It doesn’t seem fair that this handful of people get to profit from something they tried to destroy. It’s like saying,”Go ahead and legalize cannabis. We can come and take what we want and arrest you anytime we choose. It is against the law, yet we are going to tax you for it heavier than any other legal industry. We want you to pay your taxes in cash, and an agent will see you yearly, but don’t expect a loan or insurance because we don’t except drug money”. It is thinking such as this that needs to change.

Many people who work throughout the cannabis sector are law-abiding, upstanding members of society. Simply denying them access to loans and mortgages because they choose to work in a field that many find to be a grey area is discrimination.

The Proof is Out There and the Laws Need to Reflect That

Research is starting to paint a picture of cannabinoid therapies. It is showing a much different one than what the federal government has to say about cannabis. The feds classify cannabis as schedule 1 according to the CSA which is defined as

“drugs, substances, or chemicals that are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3, 4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote.”

If there is zero medicinal value in cannabis, then why is EPIDIOLEX® legal and approved by the FDA? This drug contains naturally derived CBD extracted from cannabis plants. “Experience the possibility of significant seizure reduction with EPIDIOLEX®, the 1st, and only FDA-approved prescription CBD used to treat seizures“- Epidiolex Website

Current research on the NCBI shows a multitude of medical potentials for cannabinoids and cannabinoid therapies. Combined with the FDA approval of a naturally derived cannabis-based drug and the abundance of research supporting the medicinal values of cannabis, IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE. We need to end the war against cannabis and work to undo the more than eight decades of reefer madness and brainwashing of the general public in regard to cannabis.

Do the Right Thing

You can be the seed and help tip the scales of injustice, bringing an end to cannabis prohibition. Contact your local lawmakers and let them know you support this much-needed change and that they should too if they want your vote next election. If they see enough emails like this, get enough phone calls like this, and have inboxes flooded with voicemails like this, then chances are, you’ll see change.

Remember to be kind when expressing yourself. There is no need to be like them and belittle and bash people. Those who continue to stand against cannabis legalization will eventually find themselves sitting down and not in the chair of office but in the chair of a different line of employment. There are more of us than there are them. They kept throwing dirt on us for decades, thinking they were covering us up to be forgotten about. What they didn’t expect was for all of the seeds they tossed dirt onto to cultivate themselves into a vast forest with roots reaching every corner of the globe.

One Bill Could Change it All

Unfortunately, for now, that forest must seek out alternative means of funding for small loans and mortgages. With any luck, the M.O.R.E. Act may soon receive approval which could pave a path for banks being much more open to working with not just cannabis businesses but also those who are employed within them.