EDITOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 2, NJ Cannabis Insider hosts its fall live event at the New Jersey Convention & Expo Center, featuring leaders in the medical marijuana and legal cannabis industries. Tickets are limited.

Tara Sargente, the owner of a small brownie mix company, has had her bank account shut down and checks frozen.

It’s a challenge that comes with the territory, as her brownie mixes aren’t the kind on a grocery shelf. She’s the owner of Blazin’ Bakery, making mixes for marijuana edibles. The recipe requires a baker to add their own marijuana to the mix, so what Sargente sells is legal.

As the executive director of the New Jersey Cannabis Business Association, Sargente knows many cannabis businesses in the industry have the same struggle.

“This is very common,” she told NJ Advance Media. “If they have something in their name that alludes to a leaf or green, [banks] just see anything cannabis-related and get scared and shut down.”

But federal action came on the banking issue last week and could bring relief to “cannabusinesses” in New Jersey. The U.S. House passed legislation that would allow marijuana businesses that are legal at the state level to apply for credit cards and use checking and saving accounts at banks.

For years, marijuana businesses and even adjacent operations like Sargente’s that do not touch the plant have run into roadblocks at the teller’s window. Marijuana remains a federally illegal schedule 1 drug, even when states give it the green light for medical or widespread use. The contradictions have made banks wary of doing business with any pot-associated company and left the operations with thousands in cash on hand.

The vote marked the first time a piece of marijuana legislation has reached the House floor. The Secure and Fair Enforcement, (SAFE) Banking Act, must go for a vote before Senate and be signed into law by President Donald Trump to take effect.

Local experts praised the act for its potential to rid the industry of its problem, which makes dispensaries forced to only accept cash particularly appealing to robbers and creates public safety risks. In Colorado, a security guard was gunned down in a dispensary robbery three years ago.

And the lending measure of the SAFE Act could benefit small businesses, giving them an avenue to seek startup capital. That’s a barrier that concerned activists who want to diversify the cannabis industry in New Jersey.

The proposed act also includes a provision sought by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that would allow companies to seek insurance.

“What business nowadays doesn’t operate with insurance?” said Robert Vacchiano, a Florham Park attorney focused on insurance. “The cannabis industry — the medical dispensaries, the cultivators — have been at a tremendous disadvantage not having access to those services.”

Only two banks in New Jersey are known for a friendly attitude toward cannabis: BCB Bank with locations in North Jersey and Parke Bank in South Jersey. Neither responded to requests for interviews for this story.

The bill would bring a safer, while not foolproof, way for banks to profit from the booming cannabis industry.

“It would bring billions of dollars into the banking sector that is right now either in cash, held by businesses that are sanctioned under state law,” Vacchiano said. “It would give some incentive to states to start setting up regulatory regimes that aren’t set up yet. In New Jersey, we’re hopeful that it motivates the state to make more progress on that both for medical cannabis and recreational cannabis.”

That could mean more transparency and accurate taxation, if New Jersey’s regulators can model requirements off existing industries.

The astronomical banking fees for marijuana businesses could drop, but the law doesn’t mean the companies would have all the options.

“I think that some banks will get into the business of taking deposits from marijuana businesses,” said Michael Rave, a Parsippany-based attorney specializing in financial services. “I don’t think there’s going to be lots that do.”

Because the SAFE Act does not deal with marijuana’s scheduling as an illicit drug, banks would remain vulnerable some litigation: If someone sues a marijuana business, they may also name the bank that lent to it, he said.

But all agreed the proposed legislation is still a step forward.

Sargente said if passed, the law would benefit the NJCBA’s members. She said Friday she is optimistic it can make it through the Republican-controlled Senate.

“This is going to be really good for the industry. It’s going to normalize it,” Sargente said. “I urge the Senate now, too, vote and pass this. It’d be a real shame if we got this far and we didn’t get across the line.”

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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