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Comment by chasebank | Hacker News Reader

So is weed. Nobody cares.

Unless you are a vet receiving federal benefits or living in federal sponsored housing. They might not want to cut your benefits, but the law says they have to.

Many sad stories here. Vet thought it was legal, and it helped their PTSD, but they lost their housing over it.

If you admit to smoking weed in the ER, or to any benefits program, your benefits will end or not begin, with a big red stamp on your file. If you have weed on a federally funded college campus, they by law have to cut your loans.

The feds very much so care. Don't get complacent.

Nobody cares until the rolling coup finishes up in the next few years. Then it'll be a problem for everyone, just as it is now for folks in the US on foreign visas, US citizens on various welfare programs, and US citizens who want certain jobs.

The banks do. Payment providers do. Advertisers do. There's plenty of reasons for a business to be low-key about providing accessories to break Federal laws.

No they don’t. They just want plausible deniability. They’re a bank, they want to make money. Every dispensary has CC processing and a bank account. If they cared about federal law, they would stop obvious money laundering.

I feel like this isn't the case? All dispos in California and Washington were cash only.. because they couldn't get accounts with banks.

> Every dispensary has CC processing and a bank account.

I've never been to a dispensary in the US that takes credit cards, and MC and Visa specifically don't allow cannabis businesses.

https://www.cato.org/blog/cannabis-banking-clash-between-fed...

I've only been to our dispensaries here in Santa Barbara and they all take cards.

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/21/12/24405152/its...

EDIT: Just read the company is issuing and processing their own 'credit cards'. I'm positive I've only used cards when buying from our dispensaries. Come to think of it, it's just debit cards but it's a card and it will buy weed if you want it to.

Point being, the large credit card networks, and more importantly, any FDIC insured bank, will not deal with cannabis funds.

There are a number of workarounds (Colorado credit unions being a notable one), and fintechs like the ones described in the article you linked trying to provide card solutions, but they're still all locked out of the "normal" US banking system.

"and more importantly, any FDIC insured bank, will not deal with cannabis funds."

This is patently false. My close friend runs a $75M/yr wholesale distribution op out of Carpinteria, Ca, called Headwaters. He has multiple FDIC banking relationships for his business.

Thanks, I stand corrected, looks like some smaller regional banks will accept cannabis businesses: https://flowhub.com/learn/cannabis-dispensary-bank-account

Yeah, you’ve probably used debit cards. That’s functionally just cash.

Credit cards are no-go. No airline miles from picking up psychoactives.

They don't allow cannabis businesses that sell naturally occurring delta-9 THC products. Other cannabis businesses are fine.

Have a watch of border control TV shows based in the US.

They will literally cancel your visa and send you back home for admitting smoking weed in the US.

If you're not from the US, beware weed is very much ILLEGAL, and you should treat it as such.

> They will literally cancel your visa and send you back home for admitting smoking weed in the US.

No they don't. They explicitly state, "we do not care what you do on your travels, only that you do not bring any forbidden substances with you across the border."

If you BRING something measurable (beyond a trace sample they wipe from you or your stuff) then they can take action like what you suggest. Admitting to them you do take substances on your travels is irrelevant to them.

Yes they do, if they have reason to believe you will break US law (I.e. smoking weed) they will not hesitate to cancel your visa and put you straight back on the plane.

They've shown that multiple times in their border control TV show.

The episodes I saw:

There was an Australian girl (admitted to smoking weed on a previous trip) - put straight back on the plane, visa cancelled, and a German guy- on his way out got found with a speck of weed, admitted to smoking weed - got his visa cancelled and told he'd be refused entry if he tried to return.

They basically say "we are federal officers and we enforce federal law". In terms of visas if you provide reason to believe you will break the law, then they have the right to refuse you entry.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gqp5q/when-immigrants-are-d...

This is why I bring hella weed with me to Japan. Not only do they never catch me, but the worst case scenario is going home.

Federal employees can be fired if their drug test comes pack positive for cannabis.

As well as private, federal-adjacent businesses like power utilities and other heavy infrastructure.

Give it a few years. It's not a priority compared to cracking down on abortion and genociding queer people but they'll get around to it eventually.

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