so banks are boycotting  the pot business in Colorado so it is cash or bitcoin only, good news for both pot and bitcoin, although I expect soon enough some smaller regional banks will start to do business with the pot shop owners

They're afraid it'll cut into their profits from laundering drug money from heroin and cocaine from the cartels.

Still, it's cool to see Matt Miller get on-air kudos for his research into bitcoin.

Hmm. I guess you're not aware of the banking scandals of late?

Banks, at least the bigger ones, have NO problem with trampling all over federal laws; they pretty blatantly launder billions in drug money every year, and only get slaps on the wrist for it. I can't see fear of their lapdogs being the reason they aren't giving dispensaries bank accounts.

There's something really special about buying marijuana on the 5 year aniversary of bitcoin only days after marijuana sales became legal.  We really are living in special times

So it is true, btc is used to buy drugs  and it is perfectly legal 

It's easy to find Marijuana with bitcoin.

If dispensers can't use banks and only accept cash, won't this effect the ability of the state to effectively tax them?

It seems like you'd want it all via credit card, so you can tax every last cent.

It's not so much big pharma as it is the drug wars are extremely lucrative. Price of pot will go down as it legalizes, makes the Mexican cartels lose money, makes the enforcement agencies less money, makes banks like HSBC and others who wash money back into the system from Latin America and elsewhere a lot less money.

It's not even all about the pot, a lot of countries are throwing in the towel on drug criminalization, and the establishment definitely does not want that. The cartels bribe and extort and have a lot of power. The drug interdiction via military is of course a cash cow. Historically these two eventually partner up with black ops and connected politicians and bankers, all generated by maintaining the drug prohibition. Without it they would all have to find some other way to make money.

Once people see that the world didn't end in Colorado and Washington, they will start asking deeper questions about the legitimacy of the drug war.

Pretty confident it's the latter.  Banks are tied to the Fed. Gov, and MMJ is a State law.  Banks will never break a federal law........... 

banks can't break a federal law, because even if they do, they didn't. and worst case scenario is that they just change the law, as they seemingly run the country.