/snip

"The letter to Geithner asks his office to "issue formal written guidance for financial institutions assuring that Department priorities do not include targeting or pursuing institutions whose account holders are involved in a business ostensibly operating in compliance with a state medical marijuana law." No response has been received."

Quell surprise!

But there is an alternative that every State that has a Medical Marijuana program can make use of, to the benefit of ALL the citizens of that State -- the creation of a publicly owned non-profit State Bank.  One State already has their own State Bank, has had so for many years, and has helped their State to succeed financially -- North Dakota.

Imagine that the State you live in created a State Bank.  Every bit of State business would be conducted through that Bank -- State employees payroll & pension, Medicaid and social programs, unemployment insurance, payroll & sales taxes, recurring resource revenue sales, and ALL MMJ-related fees and taxes.  Taxes could be collected for both the State and Federal governments, with the latter held in escrow until such time as the Federal government regains its sanity.

While commercial banks use a method of fractional reserve banking to turn the $5,000.00 you might have in an account with them into a virtual $50,000.00 to $75,000.00 that they turn around and loan out at substantial rates of interest, the State Bank could use that same method of fractional reserve banking to turn your $5,000.00 with them into only $15,000.00 or $20,000.00.  This lower fractional reserve rate that the State Bank might use also lowers the State Bank's financial risk.  Anyway, the really big commercial banks, the Too Big To Fail | Too Big To Jail banks, aren't lending money to Main Street -- they're too busy investing tax-free overseas for everything from toll roads in Spain to water projects in Ireland.  That, and continuing to drive the domestic Real Estate market into the toilet with their foreclosures programs.  That's one hell of a business model they have adopted, with the Federal government's tacit blessing.

The Federal government has been in the business of crushing cannabis & hemp for 75+ years, to the benefit of commercial special interests and their own expansion of powers.  The reality is that Prohibition 2.0 against cannabis has failed, just as Prohibition 1.0 against alcohol failed.  Yet their war against drugs persists.  The States that have enabled MMJ have opened up new jobs, new industries, and new revenue streams without the need for Federal "economic stimulus" funds, all while benefiting medical patients in the treatment of their ailments by alternative means.  As more individual States consider the medical and fiscal benefits of MMJ, other States are going one step further with efforts at cannabis & hemp re-legalization.  It isn't just a matter of altruistic social justice, although that does come into play -- this country could "lift itself up by the bootstraps" one State at a time.  All those new jobs, new industries, and new revenue streams create a demand for financial institutions that will meet their needs -- and publicly owned non-profit State Banks could fill that need.  Let's get it done, for the benefit of us all.