Cross-Border Finance and Commerce in Cannabis

Gordon Cameron and George Reid comment in Cannabis Wire on how the legalized cannabis industry moves product and money across borders around the world—and the challenges it faces.

George Reid:

In Canada, Reid said, “import and export [of THC cannabis products] is permitted for medical and scientific purposes.” Import and export regulations for industrial hemp are different, Reid added, but even then, there are strict rules: hemp grown in Canada has to be from an approved cultivar and “the Canadian industrial hemp import/export rules only allow you to bring in seeds of approved cultivar.”

Gordon Cameron (on the lack of access to banking for cannabis-related businesses):

“If you are a large Canadian bank, you are very concerned about running offside of U.S. banking rules or falling on the wrong side of a state attorney general who wants to take a shot at a big international bank for a lawsuit or some other regulatory action.”

This has resulted in a “big push by Canadian banks to stay away from accounts with cannabis companies,” said Cameron. He pointed out that some larger Canadian banking institutions—like the Bank of Montreal, who Cameron described as being on the “forefront” of this shift— are becoming more open to setting up cannabis-related accounts.