A big and long-awaited boost for cannabis – and those who offer financial products to cannabis businesses – now in the hands of Congress may not only help usher the industry through the coming pandemic-ridden economic slump, it could have an impact akin to putting the sector on steroids.

The leadership of the U.S. House has included wording from the SAFE Banking Act in the latest proposed coronavirus economic relief package. A House vote on the COVID-19 package, a relief bill with a potential $3 trillion price tag that is being met with considerable political headwind, is expected as early as Friday.

The proposed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or the HEROES Act, includes more stimulus checks, moratoriums on evictions, pandemic pay for essential workers, and SAFE Banking provisions. The SAFE Banking bill had bipartisan momentum in the House until it stalled in committee last fall.

If the SAFE Banking language remains the relief bill, and that bill is passed, it will pave the way for several large commercial carriers to get right into the cannabis market, as well as reinvigorate reinsurance interest, enable much-needed banking services, and bring in more capital, said Ian Stewart, a partner in Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.

“If it stays in there, it will put the cannabis industry on steroids,” Stewart said.

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