Photo via Bill Selak/Flickr.
There are untold thousands of privately-owned ATMs in Colorado, and nobody has a clue who owns them or where the machines are even located. It's a sticky truth that lies at the heart of America's fledgling post-prohibitive experiment, and that critics of marijuana legalization say might clear the way for rampant money laundering by criminal outfits looking to cash in on the green rush.
The legal weed biz, of course, has always had a cash problem, this despite recent overtures from the Obama administration that the domestic cannabis economy is on the verge of finally, maybe getting some actual credit. Last week, US Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a landmark shift in US pot policy when he said he wants the legal cannabis buisness to have access to the American banking system. And you may've heard something about Obama's cautious approval of legalization measures going forward in Colorado and Washington—and his word that smoking herb is less dangerous to the individual user than alcohol.
That's all well and good. But the rub is that so long as cannabis remains a federally illegal drug, the weed business in states like Colorado and Washingto, which both have legalized weed for recreational use, is going to remain flush with cold, hard cash. That means a lot of folks looking to pick up an eigth of top shelf Headband in Colorado will probably get one green for another by swiping at ATMs, which a first wave of retail dispensaries in the state have already implemented at the counter. The implications of this ATM boom, retired former agent in charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Colorado Jeff Sweetin tells the Denver Post, could be disastrous.
The problem is that privately-held ATMs are only regulated in states that have chosen to regulate the machines. (By contrast, bank-owned ATMs fall under the auspiece of federal banking rules.) Colorado is not one of those states. As such, no one has any idea who "owns them all or, for that matter, where they are located," the Post reports. Neither law enforcement nor state or federal banking regulations have a clue about the scope or individuals of the state's ATM networks, which track into a global system through host banks. So the concern is that the legal weed industry which effectively be the unwitting conduit whoase ATMs criminal enterprises launder target for laundering their cash.
"Organized crime must, by definition, launder their money, and this [ATMs] simply plays into their hand. What a terrific way to get their money into the U.S. banking system," Sweetin, who retired in 2012, told the Post. It's a line ripped straight from the pages of a Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council report that claims that privately-held and operated ATMs "are particularly susceptible to money laundering and fraud."