While medical marijuana may now be seen as being more legitimate in the eyes of California regulators after the enactment of new state laws, the financial structuring of the industry is still shrouded in as much uncertainty as it was when it was established in 1995.

Having heard firsthand the banking difficulties of Colorado’s own medical and recreational marijuana industries, North Coast California Assemblyman Jim Wood said the best step forward for California now is to gather information and look for flexibility with federal agencies.

“We’re kind of backing up a little bit,” he said. “… A lot of this is going to be dictated by the attitudes in Washington (D.C.).”

Despite some recent leniency from the U.S. Department of Justice, banks are still reticent to open accounts for medical marijuana businesses for fear of a federal crackdown. As a result, many industry operators are stuck with a cash-only system to pay their employees and file their taxes.

Humboldt Patient Resource Center Director Mariellen Jurkovich in Arcata has been fortunate enough to find a bank, but she questioned the future accessibility and stability of the industry if the state can’t come up with a solution.

“It’s very hard to run a business without a bank,” Jurkovich said.

A new bill — Assembly Bill 1575 — currently circulating through the state Legislature seeks to address this issue by bringing together representatives of financial institutions and the medical marijuana industry to develop new strategies on how to approach the financial backbone of the industry in the midst of federal opposition. Such options the bill describes are automated kiosks for accepting cash payments and integrated point-of-sale systems to help with tracking.

Last year, the state adopted three laws to create a licensing and regulatory system on all aspects of the medical marijuana industry. One the bills tasked the state Board of Equalization (BOE) and Department of Food and Agriculture to create a track-and-trace system for marijuana products and sales.

Currently, medical marijuana sellers are mandated to register for a seller’s permit with the BOE as well as collect and submit sales taxes, according to BOE Public Affairs Officer Venus Stromberg. Stromberg said the new system will allow for better accountability of sales as well as a possible excise taxes being proposed by the Legislature.

“It will be more difficult to under-report taxable sales of the product with track and trace in place because the BOE will know how much of the product is going to the retail level,” Stromberg said. “If an excise tax is passed — there is one proposed in Assembly Bill 1548 — it will also assist with collection and voluntary compliance for the payment of these taxes.”

In 2014, the BOE reports having more than 1,600 dispensaries registered with about $570 million in taxable income, amounting to $49.5 million in tax due to the state.

Jurkovich and the Humboldt Patient Resource Center have had three banks drop their account since she started operating in 1999, but she has been able to secure another bank at least for the time being. As a result, she is able to pay her sales taxes online, but those without bank accounts are not as fortunate.

“If we didn’t, it would be a nightmare,” she said.

With the federal government listing marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act, many banks are unwilling to accept money from medical marijuana business.

Jurkovich said those operators without a bank are stuck with large sums of cash, which she said is dangerous due to the risk of theft or robbery.

The BOE allows business to turn in sales taxes in cash at its field offices, but only if special accommodations are made beforehand, according to the BOE website.

Late last year, Wood (D-Healdsburg) had drafted a bill that would establish a cannabis credit union through the California Board of Equalization in order to address many of the industry’s banking concerns. But after a trip to Colorado last year, Wood said he felt the issue required more vetting and the bill language was removed.

Colorado had chartered its own cannabis credit union in November 2014, but the Federal Reserve turned down the state’s application to create a master account that would allow banks to transact business, according to The Denver Post.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson dismissed a lawsuit filed by the credit union that challenged the Federal Reserve’s denial, with Jackson stating in a nine-page opinion that he was compelled to reject the suit because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued guidelines on how banks can work with legal marijuana businesses, making it clear that prosecutors would not pursue investigations unless certain conditions were not met. But Jackson said he could not take that tack.

“These guidance documents simply suggest that prosecutors and bank regulators might ‘look the other way’ if financial institutions don’t mind violating the law,” Jackson wrote. “A federal court cannot look the other way.”

Even with the new federal guidelines, Wood admits that banks still take significant risks if they accept medical marijuana funds.

“The risk of losing your bank charter or being criminally responsible for something is very high,” he said.

Having taken many self-regulatory steps herself, Jurkovich said she is looking forward to seeing a statewide system that will help to bring more operators into compliance.

“It will be way better when this is not going through the back door,” she said. “I just would have liked if they had given more time for people that wanted to come into compliance and have a place for them.”

Denver Post staff writer David Migoya contributed to this article. Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.