Marijuana and Belize’s Delicate U.S. Banking Relations  

The consumption of marijuana in small doses has been decriminalized in Belize since 2017. However, in the United States, it is still not federally legalized. The disparity has caused American banks to resist conducting transactions with cultivators of the drug. On Monday, at Belize’s second Annual Anti-Money Laundering Conference, which is jointly hosted with the Embassy of the Unites States, Minister of New Growth Industries, Kareem Musa was asked if marijuana will continue to impose on Belize-U.S. banking relations. Here is his response.

 

Reporter

“In relation to this particular conference, you have been a proponent of new growth industries and specifically the legalized cultivation of marijuana. Are you anticipating or are you hoping that the outcome of this conference will be a mechanism whereby the commercial banks who have been very cagey about receiving any sort of deposits from marijuana cultivators would be in a position that they could receive the deposits of farmers who have been cultivating marijuana without it being viewed by American authorities as being the illicit proceeds of an illegal activity?”

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of New Growth Industries

“Yeah, I believe significant strides have been made on the cannabis front especially in the United States where most of our correspondent banks sit. There was a recent reclassification of cannabis from the schedule one to a schedule three drug and so that will allow for greater banking possibilities within the United States, and it’s expected that will translate to greater banking opportunities for Belize as well. As I mentioned, we do have correspondent banking relations. We want to preserve that by all means. And so I don’t see it again as before. I don’t see it being a big issue because so long as it’s a cash industry per se. But we do want to move away from it being a cash industry in the future. And so with these new classifications, it will help the banking of it.”