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One major effect of this is that weed stores will be able to use banks and payment processors legally once the regulators catch up.
by mannyv 3y ago
One major effect of this is that weed stores will be able to use banks and payment processors legally once the regulators catch up.
- ncr100 3y agoTHEREFORE they will be able to move CASH money out of their stores TO BANKS, resulting in fewer "smash and grab" incidents ... aka, "Hyundai meet storefront of weed shop." Looking forward to this, silly to see so many Kia "boys" being used for gross violence crimes when regulation changes could lessen it. > https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/seattle-pot-shop-crash-grab-burglary-second-time-6-months/281-2fdc635a-1312-4fa3-b334-dd5e6c2ed70f https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/seattle-pot-shop-cr... for example
- pests 3y agoEvery dispo in my area (Metro Detroit) has concrete pillars surrounding the building, usually every two feet or so. One of the first to open a few years back got hit early and everyone seems to have learned the lesson.
- dexwiz 3y agoThose short pillars are called bollards.
- jcims 3y agoEvery fan of physics is recommended to look up bollard test videos.
- yuppiemephisto 3y agoJust did! =)
- wallaBBB 3y agoAnd one of the best Twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/WorldBollard https://twitter.com/WorldBollard
- squigz 3y agoI just browsed this far longer than I'd care to admit.
- geph2021 2y agosame :)
- jpsouth 2y ago‘I don’t even think it was my fault!’ Well the static, bright yellow pole didn’t waltz into the side of your car now, did it? People are so ignorant it’s actually unbelievable. https://x.com/WorldBollard/status/1781394728899993984 https://x.com/WorldBollard/status/1781394728899993984 Edit: reminds me of my neighbour who dropped his motorbike because a car pulled out on him from a fuel station. I asked how fast he was going, he said with absolute conviction he was doing no more than 5mph. When I told him that was too fast he couldn’t wrap his head around it.
- xmodem 2y agoOh my god. As someone who can't see well enough to get a license, but somehow can see bollards just fine as a passenger: If you can't see them, you shouldn't be fucking driving.
- jpsouth 2y agoI’m a bit late responding, but thanks for accepting that you are unable to drive. As someone who hits the road most days, whether in a car or on a motorbike it’s absolutely crazy to witness the state of affairs going on on the roads. My uncle, who isn’t far off 80, but very fit and healthy has given his licence up this year after some pressure from family - I’ve been in the car with him driving and he isn’t safe, he can drive for sure, but he isn’t fast enough to respond to a bad move by others, nor if there is an accident ahead. I’ll be personally removing my mother’s car when she is unfit to use it too. I don’t care what it costs in taxis or public transport, I don’t want her risking someone else’s life, nor her own, over the ability to get up and go immediately, rather than wait 10 minutes for a driver. I’m grateful that they are willing to accept this and agree, I’d like to think my mother has another 10 years or so in her at this stage, but the moment it’s clear she’s not fit, that vehicle is gone.
- nullhole 2y agoThe gravity of physics always brings me down. (sorry!)
- schoen 2y agoWell-known to expert GeoGuessr players as a convenient way to quickly tell what country you're in on a random rural road, as different countries use mysteriously consistent different bollard styles even when their road surfaces are otherwise almost identical. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bollard+meta https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bollard+meta
- TylerE 2y agoThe ones in DC typically seem to be either on 2nd floors or in basements. Security outside at the entrance to the steps.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoThe ones I've seen in the Detroit area seem to mostly be in areas zoned industrial, which typically means single story, stand alone buildings with few "eyes on the street". Going to guess Michigan has restrictive zoning requirements for marijuana businesses that keep it out of the public eye.
- pests 2y ago> Going to guess Michigan has restrictive zoning requirements for marijuana businesses that keep it out of the public eye. It's up to each city/county if they allow any stores at all and their own regulations / licensing. A recent change a lot of shops seem to be going through is removing the "lobby waiting area" (so 2-3 shop "in private") and just adding more shelves and display cases while building up a huge line. Never liked the farce before (and probably a holdover from when they were medical only) so its a nice change.
- NewJazz 3y agoThe poor San Bernardino Sheriff's department is going to need a new funding source, too. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-28/marijuana-cash-seized-armored-car-fbi-san-bernardino-sheriff https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-28/marijuan...
- rrrix1 2y agoThanks for the link. I'm not a marijuana advocate, but from that article it sounds pretty plainly like so many other stories of law enforcement effectively stealing cash because they can, and are often instructed or incentivized to do so.
- seanw444 2y agoCivil asset forfeiture is fucking criminal. You don't even need to be arrested or convicted of a crime.
- justinator 3y agoI guess the weed can still be stolen
- sambazi 2y agothen again, you can just grow it yourself w/o risk of being shot
- red-iron-pine 2y agoCan't buy shit with weed. Gotta sell it. And that has time requirements and risks to you (including getting robbed yourself). Meanwhile these are cash-only businesses, so if you're gonna steal then go for the money. Esp. since most dispensaries I've seen do a reasonably brisk business.
- justinator 2y agoCrazy I know but even in places where weed is legal, there's still a black market for it.
- leptons 3y agoFirst line in your link: >"The owner says around $15,000 of products and items were stolen from the store." It doesn't mention anything about cash. "Smash and grab" in weed shops doesn't usually have much to do with having piles of cash sitting around (though I'm sure that might happen too) - it's the product that thieves want to steal because it's got no serial numbers, it's pretty light-weight and easy to run out with thousands of dollars worth of product, and it's easy to resell. If there's any cash in the register that's often secondary to grabbing a few pounds of high-quality product. 3 pounds of high quality weed can be valued at $20k. I doubt there's that much in the cash register at the end of the day, and good luck getting into the safe. It's much easier to run out with 3 pounds of weed.
- pixl97 2y agoCash has to leave the building at some point.
- leptons 2y agoThere's typically far more monetary value in product in any weed shop than there is cash, likely by an order of magnitude. Many of the purchases are done electronically, so there's not as much cash as you might think in most dispensaries.
- michaelt 2y agoUp to the 1990s (and probably still to this day, IDK how electronic payments have impacted this) there was a whole industry dedicated to getting cash off business premises and into banks. For example, banks often had special "night safes" allowing small business owners to drop off bags of cash outside of branch opening hours. Some businesses would get daily armoured car visits to collect the day's takings. There were even supermarkets with a system of pneumatic tubes allowing cashiers to transfer money to the back room without leaving their stations, so their tills never had enough cash to be worth robbing. You could also get safes with a deposit slot, so employees could drop the takings into the safe, but didn't have the combination needed to get anything out again. Assuming these all still exist, there are options for keeping cash secure, and getting it off the premises fast. Of course, by similar logic they could store all the product in a safe out of hours. Jewellery stores manage to store loads of diamonds without getting robbed, after all...
- danielscrubs 2y agoThe poverty and gangster culture is going to stay the same so this seems like a weird kind of social take, I mean wont grifters just find another way to hurt common folk? I mean... I can leave a 2000 USD Macbook for a toilet break in Starbucks over here without any issues and have done so regularly.
- berniedurfee 2y agoWhich Starbucks?
- danielscrubs 2y agoNot sure why I get downvoted from criminologists you have: Deterrence Theory, Social Learning Theory, Labeling Theory and Cultural Influence.
- canadianfella 2y ago[dead]
- andrewxdiamond 3y agoA lot of them have wiggled around this problem by offering “atms” at the cash register. You pay with a debit card, but it’s not a normal transaction, it’s an ATM withdrawal! I don’t understand how the money is vended to the business, but it keeps it out of the store
- swalling 3y agoYes this seems to be increasingly common, at least on the west coast. The suboptimal part is that the buyer typically gets hit with an out-of-network ATM fee for doing this, so the consumer is paying $2-5 for processing per transaction.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoYou can use a brokerage account that reimburses atm fees.
- kstrauser 3y agoOr a credit union.
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y agoOr some banks
- ghaff 3y agoThat’s pretty small potatoes though compared to going to a bank yourself and making a transaction for cash you don’t normally have around. Maybe there’s an ATM down the block but that’s not the case for many people.
- filoleg 3y agoAnd those ATMs around the block from a dispensary (or even in the same buildimg) would still charge a fee for withdrawal anyway (as they are always a third-party ATM and not a bank one, so you get that big message on the screen about an extra fee for withdrawal).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- beaeglebeachh 3y agoHow? It's still federally illegal to sell schedule 3 to consumers without a DEA licensed rx and dea licensing. The banks would still be knowingly in conspiracy to transmit illegal drug money and a litany of felonies for recreational or purely state-licensed 'medical'.
- mannyv 3y agoYou can sell schedule 3 drugs to consumers. Pharmacies do this all the time.
- beaeglebeachh 3y ago'without a DEA licensed rx and dea licensing' Rx under DEA scrutiny is nothing like rec or laughable state controlled medical 'recommendations'. You pull that shit as a provider on controlled scripts and your charts get audited, your DEA license gets pulled.
- jkaplowitz 3y agoBut it does mean that it will actually, for the first time ever in living memory, be possible for someone to fully federally legally possess a THC-active form of cannabis without further Congressional action. I'm not sure if a state-legal cannabis supply chain could be fully federally legal in this context, but imagine if a pharma company goes through the FDA approval process for a THC pill and then doctors prescribe it for patients based on their medical judgment that it will help alleviate pain for some chronic condition like Crohn's disease. (I expect both of those steps to happen in practice, over time of course due to how many prerequisites exist for FDA approval, to the extent they haven't already been begun.) Imagine a noncitizen in that situation being able to tell a border officer, or a citizen being able to tell a security clearance investigator: "Yes, I do use THC. Here's my prescription and the bottle from the pharmacy." and being confident of no negative repercussions. Wonderful progress compared to where we are now.
- beaeglebeachh 3y ago
- coffeebeqn 3y agoHopefully this will also help internationally. Many countries are just copying what the US is doing since they run a large part of world commerce and finance
- defiamazing 3y agoI don’t get why they don’t just use Bitcoin or Ethereum.
- kstrauser 3y agoMainly because your employees, suppliers, and landlord have no desire to be paid in Bitcoin.
- AnthonyMouse 3y agoWhat does that matter? You can convert Bitcoin into cash. But then you can do that in an undisclosed location at your leisure instead of keeping a mountain of cash in your publicly advertised storefront location and becoming a huge robbery target. Also, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to find someone to accept it as payment, since they can convert it to cash too. And the sort of landlords/suppliers/employees willing to do business with a dispensary seem like exactly the sort who would accept Bitcoin.
- buildsjets 3y agoNo sane person uses Bitcoin as a currency because it is a fundamentally unsound ponzi scheme for suckers. I don't want my salary to be subject to the vagaries and manipulations of the Bitcoin exchange rate.
- AnthonyMouse 3y agoIf you don't want to hold Bitcoin or be exposed to price changes, you can set your hourly rate in dollars, be paid at the current exchange rate and immediately convert it back into dollars. The advantage of this over being paid in physical cash is that it's electronic and then you're not carrying two weeks salary in physical cash on your person for somebody to mug you.
- anigbrowl 2y agotwo weeks salary in physical cash How expensive do you think weed is? You can get baked every day for two weeks for $50, probably less
- LgWoodenBadger 3y agoI guess, but have you tried to gamble online using a CapitalOne mastercard? It's impossible. Your only recourse is an ACH transfer.
- mynameisnoone 2y agoIs there a particularly favored and useful bank or CC that doesn't obstruct online gambling?
- bregma 3y agoThat's so sad. Here in Ontario Canada I can walk into a local neighbourhood cannabis store (one of many on every block, it seems) and make a purchase using my debit or credit card. I'm not sure if any of them even keep a cash float although I imagine they must, just in case granny comes in "for medicinal use". Alternatively, I could just go to the government-run web store and get home delivery through Canada Post at no extra charge.
- oooyay 3y agoYou can in the U.S. too. For instance, in Portland we have a neighborhood shop and you can use a debit card there because each transaction is classified as an ATM transaction. All the ban ever did was making accounting and reporting more complicated, it didn't stop state legal sales or transactions.
- jkaplowitz 3y agoThe difference is in Canada it's actually fully legal at all levels of government, so the transaction is a normal point of sale transaction, it can also go through a credit card as a normal purchase without being subjected to the expensive cash advance interest rates, and so on. It can even be a tax-deductible and reimbursable business entertainment expense under similar conditions to alcohol.
- bawolff 3y agoIts super weird how america can make things half legal. In canada the responsibilities are divided up between different levels of government. None of this legal at one level but not another level bullshit.
- AnthonyMouse 3y agoIt was supposed to be that way in the US but then populists decided they wanted the federal government to do all the things the constitution said it couldn't.
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- mannyv 3y agoPeople are talking about schedule 3 needing a prescription, etc. From the financial point of view that's irrelevant; the point is that you CANNOT legally sell schedule 1 drugs commercially (with some exceptions that I can't remember). Schedule 1 -> banned from the financial system. Schedule 3 -> OK to use the financial system. How the DEA schedule and the financial system interact is still unclear. The important part is that once regulations are updated weed businesses won't be restricted from access to the financial system. There may be some more regs around that access, but I'm sure they'll be worked around.
- samtho 3y ago> How the DEA schedule and the financial system interact is still unclear. You already answered this already :) > the point is that you CANNOT legally sell schedule 1 drugs commercially Schedule 1 means illegal under (nearly) any circumstance, commercial dispensaries fall under “any circumstance.” Drug scheduling is just a tiered system for classification in order to determine which rules to apply to its sale, distribution, and possession of the substance.
- refurb 2y ago> Schedule 1 -> banned from the financial system. This is not true. Here is a legitimate business selling schedule 1 drugs: https://www.caymanchem.com/product/10801/mephedrone-(hydrochloride) https://www.caymanchem.com/product/10801/mephedrone-(hydroch... Regulatory Information: DEA Schedule I With a schedule I DEA license, you can buy this product, and the manufacturer can deposit your money into a bank. That's why I'm not sure moving marijuana from schedule 1 to 2 or 3 will really change much from a banking perspective. Marijuana dispensaries will still be violating federal law, no different than if they were selling sleeping pills illegally.
- mattmaroon 2y agoRight. At the end of the day we need to just de-list it and strike all federal laws on it. The ship has sailed and the states won, let’s just do the inevitable thing and get on with it.
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- giantg2 3y ago"One major effect of this is that weed stores will be able to use banks and payment processors legally once the regulators catch up." Assuming banks/processors don't decide to restrict them for other reasons.
- feoren 3y agoWouldn't that be leaving money on the table? The bank that accepts business with marijuana vendors is at a competitive advantage to one that doesn't, no?
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- hyperbovine 3y agoBut will they be able to write off business expenses? Section 280E of the US Tax Code is, as I understand it, is the major killer for the whole industry right now. Edit: yes https://www.duanemorris.com/alerts/tax_implications_reclassifying_cannabis_schedule3_controlled_substance_0923.html https://www.duanemorris.com/alerts/tax_implications_reclassi...
- m463 3y agoI wonder if this means more tracking of drug purchases. Does alcohol consumption show up on credit card bills and filter back to insurance companies?
- red-iron-pine 2y agothey might not be able to see the purchases if you're in a state where you can buy booze in a 7/11 or grocery store; in that case it's just a grocery purchase. but they sure as hell can see that you have a charge from "CORNER LIQUOR STORE - $47.61 - 12 APRIL 2024" and can make guesses. This also assumes that grocery stores aren't aggressively aggregating and selling sales data, esp. those from Membership Cards. Insurance companies would love to get a hold of that data, not only for alcohol, but things like sugar and junk food purchases. I'd bet my hat they're already doing so.
- markdown 3y agoDon't be so sure. Kava is regulated by the FDA as a food, but many banks and payment processors refuse to work with businesses that sell it.
- dragonwriter 2y agoWill they? Since it will be Schedule III, “weed stores” that aren't pharmacies distributing properly labelled drugs to people with prescriptions will still be violating the Controlled Substances Act and will probably have the same banking problems.
- sambull 2y agoI don't see how this anything but a mandate for the DEA to crack down on recreational.
- dragonwriter 2y agoI don't see how rescheduling to a less-restrictive category is a mandate to change the existing enforcement policy to a more restrictive one.
- mynameisnoone 2y agoThere is a cannabis dispensary here offering delta-8 and -9 THC products (legal in Texas because they derive from hemp) takes credit cards. Perhaps they are too small to matter while living on borrowed time, but most/all dispensaries around here take CCs.