In the weeds

After Washington voted to legalize marijuana last November, the state set about drafting rules for the new industry. And guess what? It’s really, really complicated. There are soooo many details. Like how do you control the quality of Washington’s pot? And keep it from winding up in states where marijuana isn’t legal? But the gnarliest question of all, according to Spokane’s Spokesmen-Review, is how new marijuana businesses will finance their operations or pay their bills with money that might be banned from the national banking system? There are federal laws, including the ominous sounding Bank Secrecy Act, that place severe restrictions on drug money. “You can’t transact financial matters with marijuana proceeds,” Scott Jarvis, director of the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, the Spokesman Review. Like, for instance, you can’t open a bank account. So far, the feds aren’t doing much to help remedy the situation. Jarvis told the Spokesman Review that when he asked Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials for some guidance recently,  “they looked at me like I was pitching a reality TV series.” Which is actually not a bad idea. Jarvis may be getting some relief. U.S. Congressman Denny Heck has co-sponsored a bill that would grant licensed recreational and medical marijuana businesses access to the federal banking system, if they're operating in a state where pot is legal.