Michigan wants to help medical cannabis companies with banking alternatives

Be at the forefront of cannabis and psychedelics science and innovation. Register by March 14 & Save $100 on tickets to The Emerald Conference by MJBiz Science, April 1-3 in San Diego.


Michigan regulators are trying to tackle the thorny issue of banking services for companies in the cannabis business, but it doesn’t appear that a solution is immediately obvious.

According to a Michigan NPR affiliate, the lack of financial services for most of the medical marijuana industry – which the state is currently in the process of regulating – has come to the attention of the state MMJ licensing board.

And while the board wants to help, it’s apparently not quite sure what to do.

Members of the board are “meeting with vendors that might be able to help” provide financial services, the news outlet reported, but added, “There’s no deadline to get that done.”

Andrew Brisbo, the director of the Michigan Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation, told the radio station that his agency is “heading up an evaluation” on how to get MMJ companies financial services, in part, to help them pay their state taxes.

Details were not immediately available, however, and the news report did not identify any possible solutions or financial institutions that may be willing to work with cannabis companies.