Governor Gretchen Whitmer and 22 other state and territorial governors sent a letter Wednesday asking Congress to adopt a law that would help marijuana businesses with banking and credit.
The mayor of Washington, D.C., also signed the letter.
They say marijuana’s status as an illegal substance at the federal level creates a lot of problems in states like Michigan where it’s been legalized.
Andrew Brisbo is the executive director of the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency. He says marijuana is a mostly cash business right now.
“You know, we have a high degree of oversight of cannabis businesses in the state of Michigan, and when we’re looking at auditing records to ensure compliance, cash-related transactions are much harder to trace and track than those that are conducted electronically, and that’s just the way that business operates these days.”
Brisbo says regulators have a responsibility to help the industry succeed. That’s after Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2018.
