Taxpayers Lose on Both Health and Fiscal Responsibility
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Pro-drug legislation that would put the addiction industry on steroids took a blow with the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which finds that the so-called “SAFER Banking” Act would increase the federal deficit by $65 million between 2024-2034 if it were enacted this year.
According to the new CBO report, “Estimated budgetary effects would mainly stem from:
- Increased receipts from federal housing programs
- Changes in the amount of federally insured deposits
- Increased administrative costs for financial regulators.”
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy advisor to Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, released the following statement on the CBO report:
“The so-called ‘SAFER Banking’ Act would be better known as the Addiction Banking Act, because the bill would add fuel to the fire of our nation’s drug crisis. Now we know it will also come with real costs to taxpayers. Big banks, big tobacco, and the alcohol industry might be giddy about passing on those costs to consumers while they rake in profits, but hard-working Americans should be outraged.
“As we have said all along, this bill is both a legal and a financial bailout that will buttress the banking system at the expense of public health. It will also risk increasing money laundering by Mexican and Chinese cartels and other traffickers by giving them access to the U.S. banking system through shell corporations. Now we know it also adds to the federal deficit at a time when the national debt continues to grow out of control. While the addiction industry tries to claim drugs are social justice, the truth is this bill is a giveaway for greedy corporations.
“There’s nothing safe about injecting more drugs in America’s communities, and there’s nothing safe about pot banking.”