Mastercard moves to ban cannabis purchases on its debit cards
Mastercard moves to ban cannabis purchases on its debit cards
Mastercard has told financial institutions to stop allowing marijuana transactions on its debit cards, dealing a blow to an industry already on the fringes of the financial system in the United States.
Payment processors have a functional monopoly and should not be permitted to refuse or otherwise be punitive to any category of purchase.
From the article: "The federal government considers cannabis sales illegal, so these purchases are not allowed on our systems," the spokesperson added.
Seems like this isn’t a Mastercard thing, but a government thing. Marijuana is still illegal at the inter-state level unfortunately.
that hasnt been being enforced for a long time, so if something's changed it'd help Mastercard's PR quite a bit to point to a government order or something.
Otherwise yeah it's a mastercard thing
Well, they can't stop a cash withdrawal on your card to pay for it. So, it appears they still have to pay for it in a way.
Cannabis users should move to ban Mastercard.
That's a very dumb business move, it might be illegal for then to do that in Canada
It should be illegal for a company to limit what you can purchase anywhere in the world.
Under the law, they literally have to limit transactions for illegal goods, otherwise they become complicit in that crime.
The real stupidity is that Marijuana is still illegal under federal law.
There's nothing illegal about them blocking illegal purchases on their cards, of which the US federal government still considera marijuana illegal
Re read my comment
I only skimmed the article but it seemed US centric so I'd guess this is relevant to the US since it's not legal federally there. I was worried for a moment since I use one for my orders in Canada. Though if for some reason does happen in Canada I'm sure there'll still be some way to do online orders like with Interac or another company. Too much tax money collected for the Canadian government to just let an online revenue stream dry up from a credit lender.
This was a maneuver by VISA and MC in the Aughts when Wikileaks was publishing information embarrassing to the US Federal Government.
Pharmacies and medical doctors have long been creative about preserving privacy. Dispensaries will go back to selling tea or candy or miscellaneous OTC pharmacological product which they've been doing since prohibition if not before.
You'll not stop me! I'll just withdraw money from an ATM, and what I do with that is nacho business.
And over here in Sweden we're 99% cash-less at the moment. I tried to warn as many as possible that we do not want to give up transactional independence.
Ok, I’ll just switch, they already ban porn purchases 👍
I didn't even think you were allowed to use debit cards or credit cards to buy weed.
I use mine all the time to buy weed, but I'm in Canada, it's legal here.
In washington state it is only cash. Banks will not bank with weed sellers.
Use my debit card every time here in NY.
How about visa?
I buy all my weed from “my guy.” 10x better product for half the price. And at least I know the person I’m dealing with is one making a living instead of some weed bro millionaire fuckboi who’s dad helped him start his weed venture.
Bitcoin looks better everyday.
bitcoin looks worse every day, however there are some potentially useful crypto currencies that do continue to hold some appeal
Widespread cryptocurrency adoption will set us free.
The solution to "I can't use my credit card to buy weed" is not "guess I'll join a cult."
That sounds like a very cool concept for a music video.