Freshen up that pot cash before taking it to the bank

Colorado’s marijuana dispensaries are having trouble getting access to traditional banking services. So they started their own credit union, only to have federal regulatory agencies refuse to bless it.

The marijuana industry "does not have an established track record of success and remains illegal at the federal level," the National Credit Union Administration explained, rather sensibly, in turning down the application from Fourth Corner Credit Union.

And it's not like dispensaries have no access to banking. The U.S. Treasury Department last year issued guidelines for how banks can accept pot money. There's a lot of red tape, though, and some big banks won't take dispensaries as clients. Others want as little disruption as possible.

So dispensaries are left using elaborate workarounds, including spritzing pot-infused cash with Febreze before making deposits. That gives a whole new meaning to the term “money laundering.”