California pot vote may push Congress

WASHINGTON — When Lynette Davies, co-operator of the Canna Care medical marijuana dispensary in Sacramento, pays her California taxes she needs to haul a bag with $20,000 in cash to the state tax office.

“That’s really unsafe for me, and it’s unsafe for my employees to have this cash in the store,” said Davies, whose business is legal under state law as a result of California’s 1996 vote on the use of medical marijuana. “All because the banks that want to bank with us can’t.”

Marijuana advocates are counting on Californians to vote to legalize recreational weed this fall, bringing pressure on Congress to end anti-pot policies that include federal obstruction of banks doing business with the industry. California is nearly six times larger than any other state that has legalized pot for recreational use, and its potential cannabis market has been estimated at nearly $7 billion.

“You’re talking about the largest state with the largest population and therefore the most members of Congress,” said Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that lobbies for pot legislation. “It would have a ripple effect that impacts the entire nation.”

The pot industry, though, has an outspoken opponent in Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who opposes the legalization initiative and voted last month against giving the industry access to the banking system.

John Hudak, who studies marijuana policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution research center, isn’t sure what the impact of California legalization would be. He notes that the states where recreational marijuana is now legal — Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Alaska — aren’t big enough markets for the banking industry to pick a fight with the feds.

California could change the game, however. “If the California market booms there will become a point where the financial services sector will look at that and say, ‘Hey, we can make some money here,’ ” Hudak said.