Bank of America suspends cannabis research firm's account
Despite FDA approval: Cannabis banking remains illegal under federal law

Bank of America has announced to the Scottsdale Research Institute that it will close its bank account next month, despite the company's cannabis research being sanctioned by the federal government.
In a letter to the Scottsdale Research Institute dated October 12 and posted on social media, Bank of America BAC (+ 1.58%) announced that it will limit banking services within 21 days and close the account by Will finally close on November 12th.
"Bank of America is closing the account of a federally licensed cannabis researcher," said Dr. Sue Sisley on Friday on her Twitter page. "SRI is conducting FDA-approved controlled trials investigating cannabis as a medicine to treat pain / PTSD in military veterans and terminally ill patients, which TRAGICALLY paralyzes our research."
At the time of the last review, the tweet had received 55 comments, mostly criticizing Bank of America. Some people said they would cancel their credit cards at the bank.
A spokesman for the bank contacted by MarketWatch made no comment.
Sisley, a psychiatrist and president of the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI), added a photo of her U.S. Controlled Substance Registration Certificate to her tweet. Drug Enforcement Administration. The SRI received approval earlier this year after a legal battle with the US government over the right to produce cannabis for medical testing.
According to an article in the cannabis publication Marijuana Moment, the Scottsdale Research Institute is currently reviewing offers from other financial institutions.
"We just wanted to expose the misconduct of these big banks," Sisley told the publication. The Scottsdale Research Institute wants to make it known that even legal businesses are being targeted by those big banks that refuse to see federal agency documents, she said.
Sisley speculated that the Scottsdale Research Institute may have prompted the bank's action by adding psychoactive mushrooms (psilocybin) to its research, but the bank provided "no justification."
The company has openly informed Bank of America about its cannabis use for 10 years. It originally used cannabis from the University of Mississippi for its studies, but was then given the right to grow its own marijuana.
"We have a contract with the DEA. We grow cannabis for clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration and sell it to the DEA," she said in the Marijuana Moment article. "The way they behave is unscrupulous - and further proof that the word 'cannabis' is still completely contaminated, even though it is a 100% legal operation."
Sisley was fired from the University of Arizona in 2014 after receiving approval from the federal drug agency to study the effects of weed on patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the meantime, cannabis is still on the federal government's list of controlled substances, which in many cases prevents cannabis-related companies from using the banking system. Some banks have served cannabis companies under banking guidelines published during the Obama administration, but the largest U.S. institutions continue to avoid any company or organization that comes into contact with the plant.
Meanwhile, the SAFE banking bill, which aims to open the banking system to cannabis, remains pending in the U.S. Senate after it was recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cannabis experts don't expect any major moves out of Congress in the near future.





