atm

1-17-2014

The great thing about being a blogger in Colorado is the abundance of news and events that take place in our state. The “Green Rush” for instance, it’s been a hot topic and continues to feed us an unlimited supply of controversial news.

A perfect example was the state house bill that was blocked by state legislators on Wednesday.

First, I must tell you how the government’s assistance program works. Colorado State welfare recipients receive their benefits on debit cards which can be used for purchases just like credit cards or to withdraw cash from ATM machines.

A Colorado legislative bill banning the use of government-issued EBT cards to obtain cash at marijuana-shop ATMs was blocked by Colorado Democrats Wednesday, even though the marijuana industry supported the ban. Marijuana advocates say it could actually bruise the pot industries’ reputation by people spreading false rumors about people using their disability benefits, welfare and social security funds on marijuana purchases.

Colorado Democrats rejected the proposal stating that neighborhoods have limited ATMs, and the legislature needs to address those concerns before restricting places where public assistance cards can’t be used.

The city of Denver alone has more marijuana shops than Starbucks and McDonalds combined, with over 200. Colorado has approved over 340 marijuana business licenses with more than a hundred of those still pending in Denver.

“I’m not comfortable limiting that access until I’m certain we’ve done that due diligence to make sure people can access their benefits when they need to,” Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, said. “We see this legislation as unnecessary regulation that could prevent access to benefits needed by low-income Coloradans,” said Terry Scanlon of the Colorado Center on Law & Policy.

One could question the significance of the bill and assume that people could obtain cash at other ATMs using their government assistance ATM cards anyway.

House bill link: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2014a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont/4ECAEFB2253EA4CB87257C300005CAFB?Open&file=037_01.pdf

Contributed by:  Martin Allred

www.coloradoconcierge.com