Here’s part of the report in Northern Lights.com
It’s easy to find hemp yarn, seeds, clothing and other hemp products at Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer and other stores across the United States. Enter hemp in Amazon’s search field and you’ll get 20 pages of hemp products ranging from dog chews to “Hemp Oil-Cannabis Oil” to natural hemp cord to moisturizer.
That’s why Blaine-based natural clothing company Rawganique owners were so surprised when they were told that Umpqua Bank would no longer work with them because they’re in a “marijuana-related industry.”
The bank is closing Rawganique’s account by the end of the month because the company “operates a line that is an excluded line of business at Umpqua Bank,” the bank said in a letter to Rawganique received on October 13, Rawganique CEO Qeanu Wallner said. The bank’s decision gives the company little time to find a new bank, which is crucial to its operations.
Rawganique’s hemp products include clothing, hempseed oil, hempseed butter, hemp protein powder and rope.
Under federal law, the hemp plant, which shares a common ancestor with marijuana but is bred to maximize fiber production, is a schedule 1 drug. Hemp products, however, are legal.
“We are federally insured, so we are bound legally to comply with federal law,” said Eve Callahan, a spokesperson for Umpqua Bank. “We are prevented from banking with companies that grow cannabis. Hemp is the result of growing cannabis.”
While we are on the subject of Umpqua. Quite possibly the best vanilla ice cream on the planet !