Welcome to my Weekly Weed Report video presentation for Thursday, November 3. Below is a condensed transcript.

The advertising slogan during the War on Drugs in the 1980s was: “Just say no.” It was originally championed by First Lady Nancy Reagan, who crusaded against illicit drug use. It became a cultural catchphrase.

I remember seeing the just-say-no public service ads on network television. Particularly striking were the ones starring a steely-eyed Clint Eastwood.

Drug laws and attitudes have loosened since the Eighties. However, despite increasing legalization of marijuana at the state level, bankers seem to have adopted Mrs. Reagan’s phrase, when marijuana companies come to them in search of loans. They just say no, because marijuana remains banned at the federal level and they fear repercussions.

That’s all about to change.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said this week that Congress is “very close” to passing a marijuana banking and expungements bill after collaborating with “a bunch of Republicans.”

In response to a question from a reporter, Schumer said: “I am working in a bipartisan way with Democrats and Republicans to take the SAFE Banking Act, which allows financial institutions to involve themselves in cannabis companies and lend money to them…but it also does some things for justice, such as expunging a record.”

The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act seeks to protect banking institutions, and their insurers, that offer services to legal marijuana-related businesses. The bill prevents federal banking regulators from imposing penalties on depository institutions that offer services to these businesses. Under the bill, transactions involving activities with a cannabis-related business would no longer be considered as generating proceeds from illegal activities.

Schumer’s plan is to file the package of marijuana reforms during the lame duck session following next week’s November 8 midterm elections, fast-track the bill through both chambers, and send it to President Biden’s desk before the end of the current Congress.

This legislative strategy would ensure that SAFE doesn’t become the casualty of a “red wave” in the midterms. Democrats are generally pro-marijuana, and an increasing number of Republicans are joining the cause, but the GOP remains controlled by social conservatives who oppose marijuana legalization.

To be clear, the SAFE Plus bill that Schumer is working to finalize with bipartisan and bicameral interaction does not include language that would federally legalize marijuana. But SAFE would further open the door to full normalization.

Despite sometimes harsh rhetoric from anti-marijuana lawmakers, legalization and commercialization of marijuana will roll on (so to speak). Mainstream consumer companies that are household names are forging alliances with fledgling pot outfits. At the end of the day, the Republicans are pro-business…and marijuana is Big Business.

Marijuana also has become an entrenched business that would be difficult to uproot. A wide variety of companies are exploiting the trend toward marijuana legalization, not only by growing and selling pot but by creating medicines, branded edibles, tourist junkets, vaping parlors, paraphernalia, retail shops, seeds, fertilizers, trade shows, real estate investment trusts, exchange-traded funds…you name it.

SAFE already has passed the House. If the Senate does advance a modified version this year and it’s enacted into law, you can expect a surge in bank lending to marijuana companies, which in turn would ignite a rally in pot stocks.

The time to buy quality marijuana stocks is ahead of SAFE’s passage, before this legal catalyst occurs and share prices zoom higher. Indeed, the news from Schumer’s office this week has ignited a mini-rally in pot stocks.

For all of these reasons and more, I held an investment Town Hall, on November 1, called “The Marijuana Millionaire Countdown.”

During my online Town Hall, I revealed the one simple marijuana trade that’s on track to reap exponential profits for investors. There’s still time to jump aboard my event, which was archived for easy around-the-clock access. Click here for your free spot.

John Persinos is the chief investment strategist of Marijuana Profit Alert. You can reach John at: mailbag@investingdaily.com

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