State Treasurer Joe Torsella, along with treasurers of two other states, wants to meet with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in hopes of finding a way to ease the problem that marijuana-related companies are having in securing financial institutions willing to do business with them.

Sessions' January directive to federal prosecutors allowing them to more aggressively enforce the federal law outlawing marijuana has made financial services institutions gun-shy about banking the cannabis industry in Pennsylvania or 28 other states where marijuana is legal for medical or recreational use.

Without a relationship with a bank, said Steve Schain, senior attorney in Philadelphia with the international Hoban Law Group, marijuana-related businesses must operate on a cash-only basis which makes bookkeeping and paying bills more challenging and increasing their vulnerability to crime.

"Cash has to come on and off the property, placing targets on the backs of growers, processors or dispensers and their respective customers and vendors," Schain said. "For example, while attempting to stop a June 18, 2016, robbery, Colorado dispensary security guard Travis Mason was shot to death. Additionally, employee theft concerns spike, and commercial landlords' and insurers' discomfort with piles of cash may result in being dropped, evicted or having rent and premiums increased."

Torsella, along with the treasurers of California and Oregon and representatives from the cannabis industry, sent a letter Thursday to Sessions asking to meet with him to have a conversation to provide some clarity to the situation.

Sessions' rescission in January of what is referred to as the Cole Memos shifted the direction as to how the 48-year-old federal ban on cultivating, distributing and possessing marijuana was to be enforced by federal prosecutors.

Instead of making enforcing the marijuana law a low priority, Sessions, who views marijuana as a gateway drug, gave the prosecutors the green light to enforce the federal prohibition on marijuana as they saw fit.

That, in turn, created an uneasiness for some financial institutions in providing banking services to marijuana-businesses that operate in compliance with their state's laws.

"With legalization taking place, there are sound public policy reasons for providing financial institutions and other entities that do business with the cannabis industry some comfort that they will not be prosecuted or lose access to customer assets simply for banking this industry," the letter states.

It goes on to say that the Cole Memos provided a roadmap for banks to follow to ensure they were following the rules related to banking such as those about money laundering and keeping drug money out of the hands of cartels or drug gangs.

"The absence of the Cole memos now leaves the industry and financial institutions in the dark," the letter states.

A spokeswoman for Torsella was unable to provide further comment about the letter on Friday.