Montville — As dispensary manager at Thames Valley Relief, Laurie Zrenda would like to see passage of federal legislation that would make banking easier for her business and other medical marijuana dispensaries. So would U.S. Rep Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.

After the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act was blocked for the past few years, Courtney is feeling optimistic it will go somewhere this year, due to new leadership on the House Financial Services Committee.

The bill passed out of the committee in March by a bipartisan 45-15 vote.

"It's headed to the floor," Courtney said, "and I think the bipartisan vote that came out of committee bodes well that a) it's going to pass in the House, pretty comfortably, and b) it will send a signal to the Senate that this is not just a partisan agenda out of the new majority in the House."

The congressman visited Thames Valley Relief on Monday afternoon for a tour, and to discuss his support for this and other marijuana-related bills.

"I had asked him to come, just because there are so many federal issues we'd like to see change," Zrenda said.

Thames Valley Relief has been around since September 2014, but Courtney has not visited since the business moved to its current location, at 887 Norwich-New London Turnpike, a year ago.

The move came from a need to expand: Zrenda said there were 188 people registered when Thames Valley Relief first opened and more than 5,200 today.

Zrenda said she was lucky to find a find a bank to handle her accounts but said she knows of only two in the state that provide services for dispensaries. Zrenda said the bank Thames Valley Relief uses, which she declined to name, charges a large monthly fee to cover oversight costs necessary to satisfy the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Courtney explained that the SAFE Banking Act would "basically take marijuana off Schedule 1 for the purposes of financial services." The bill would make it so that federal banking regulators couldn't penalize banks for serving legitimate cannabis businesses, or take a negative action on a loan solely because the loan is for a cannabis business.

Courtney said the legislation has gotten the support of the Credit Union League of Connecticut and the Independent Community Bankers of America.

He has heard testimony that dispensary operators in Colorado are "basically just sitting on piles of cash, because they had no place to go with it," and that cash from marijuana dispensaries in California burned in the wildfires.

An additional struggle for Thames Valley Relief is that it can't claim any deductions on its taxes.

"You can't deduct your payroll, your rent, your electricity, anything, because we're 'illegal,'" Zrenda said.

She also expressed support for the STATES Act, which would essentially give federal recognition to state legalization of marijuana. Thirty-three states now have medical marijuana programs.

To acquire a cannabis product at Thames Valley Relief, one must first have a doctor confirm one of the state's 31 qualifying conditions, apply for a card through the state, and schedule a 30-minute appointment with one of the five staff pharmacists at the dispensary. Zrenda said Thames Valley Relief sees 300 people a day on average.

Courtney supports the CARERS Act, which would eliminate federal regulations and penalties for marijuana-related activities that are in compliance with state law, and authorize VA health care providers to recommend medical marijuana for patients.

e.moser@theday.com