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Every few weeks, Steve Rusnack fills up his gas tank and sets off for the roughly 500-mile round trip between his cannabis shop in Fort Kent and his bank in Augusta.
He isn’t crazy about the nearly 10-hour trek, especially during the first half when he’s carrying large amounts of cash ready for deposit. But he has little choice.
Rusnack is the owner of Full Bloom Cannabis, an Aroostook County marijuana company with two adult-use shops and one medical storefront. While his business is fully legal at the state level, many banks won’t risk working with a business the federal government says is not. To do so could open the banks up to charges of criminal money laundering and compliance penalties.
Rusnack is one of well over 1,000 cannabis business owners in Maine’s medical and recreational markets who have struggled with the lack of access to banking.
Industry experts say the shortage of banks and credit unions willing to serve the cannabis industry creates undue financial and regulatory burdens on businesses. The lack of basic financial services also causes safety concerns for cash-driven companies, squanders growth by cutting off access to loans, and puts mom-and-pop shops at a disadvantage compared with large multistate operators with deep pockets.
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