Bill Maher is calling out federal policy that blocks marijuana businesses from accessing the banking system, saying it leaves hundreds of thousands of workers and companies exposed to unnecessary risks.
In an episode of his podcast released today in which he was chatting with Chris Pratt, Bill Maher criticized the government for treating state-legal cannabis operators as “bad people” and forcing them to run cash-only operations.
“It’s a terrible situation that pot stores are still sort of ‘bad people’ so we can’t trust them with banking and shit, so there’s too much cash which tends to attract robbers,” Maher said. “We’re bad people who are addicting people to something terrible, so we can’t bank it’s all, you know, it’s just kind of bureaucratic bullshit”.
Pratt responded by saying “It’s really interesting they decide to throw a conscious on that aspect of capitalism.”
Maher then pointed to the bureaucratic barriers marijuana companies face in states like California, describing them as overwhelming. “If I told you all the hurdles that we had to try to get over to just establish a marijuana company, it’s just ridiculous. They do not make it easy.”
Maher argued that removing red tape surrounding marijuana businesses would be a simple, widely popular reform. “If you want to have an easy low-hanging fruit victory with people, just cut the red tape.”
The comments come as the cannabis community expects the SAFER Banking Act, which would allow cannabis banking nationwide, to be refiled in the House and Senate. The legislation has previously passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate Banking Committee, but has never received a vote by the full Senate.
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