A full decade after Washington state legalized adult-use cannabis, the industry still struggles with a lack of access to banking, which among other inconveniences is forcing dispensaries and weed shops to do all their business with cash, making them targets for robberies and violence makes crime.

Washington, one of the worst-hit states, reported at least 100 armed robberies in 2022, the most in the past 10 years, according to a tracker from Uncle Ike’s, which has kept an informal tally self-reported by companies and other reports since 2017. Robberies at retail cannabis stores are not officially prosecuted nationwide by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The tracker paints a comprehensive picture of robberies that have been reported to local police departments, the Seattle Times found.

The crimes escalated when the year’s first robbery-murder of a retail clerk was recorded at a Tacoma cannabis store in March.

touch cannabis? No banks for you

It’s not that the banks don’t want to accommodate the billions of dollars weed generates annually, or that they don’t like the nearly half a million people that the industry employs. Neither can they because cannabis is still a federally illegal substance. Therefore, the industry does not have access to financial institutions for credit, capital, regular bank accounts or credit cards. Without access to these services, retailers have to handle large amounts of cash, making them easy prey for robbers.

“There’s probably more cash at cannabis stores than at your bank,” said Adán Espino, executive director of the Craft Cannabis Coalition.

Vicki Christophersen, executive director of the Washington CannaBusiness Association, says the industry is part of a larger trend of increasing robberies.

“But the difference for us is that there’s so much cash, and in some cases because of the type of product we’re selling, it’s very attractive to people,” she said.

Cannabis…