Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration has plans to begin working on regulations to make it easier for banks to engage in business with marijuana sellers without fearing repercussions, the Politico reported.
While speaking at the University of Virginia, Holder said it is becoming more pressing to deal with the amount of money coming in from marijuana sales from a law enforcement perspective, according to Politico.
The solution Holder proposed was to allow marijuana business to use the banking system to prevent sums of cash from "lying around," according to the Associated Press.
With Colorado already booming with the marijuana business and Washington not far behind, the issue of where to keep the money safe after both states passed the legalization of recreational marijuana, the AP reported.
"You don't want just huge amounts of cash in these places. They want to be able to use the banking system," Holder during his speech at the university, according to Politico. "There's a public safety component to this. Huge amounts of cash-substantial amounts of cash just kind of lying around with no place for it to be appropriately deposited is something that would worry me, just from a law enforcement perspective."
The regulations Holder and the Obama administration are working is being called a legal "guidance" for prosecutors and federal law enforcement, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman, Politico reported.
According to the spokeswoman, these legal recommendations are seen as just a "legal memo" and cannot be enforced in court and would only serve as a "safe harbor" for banks before they begin taking money from the marijuana sellers, Politico reported.
The biggest issue so far is that banks do not want to work with the marijuana businesses because they are afraid to be accused of violating money laundering laws, Politico reported.
If banks were to process money made from marijuana sales in Colorado today, this would place the federally insured bank "at risk of drug racketeering charges," and because of these threats banks are refusing to let marijuana businesses open accounts, according to the AP.
The Justice and Treasury departments are both working on the issue which has created legal tension because marijuana is still illegal in most states, Politico reported.
"We're in the process now of working with our colleagues at the Treasury Department to come up with regulations that will deal with this issue," Holder said, according to Politico.
Holder said the new regulations will be announced "very soon" and is merely "an attempt to deal with a reality that exists in these states," and is not intended to be seen as a "blessing of marijuana" by the government, Politico reported.
Whether the regulations would apply to states where recreational marijuana is legal or to any state where medical marijuana is legal has not been stated.
