Banks across Colorado are increasingly shutting their doors to businesses in the medical marijuana industry, a trend that is only likely to increase now that dispensaries have been labeled a "sin business" by the state housing authority.

But while owners of medical marijuana establishments are locked out of government-backed small-business loans, nothing has stopped millions of dollars in federal assistance from flowing into one of Colorado's other so-called "sin business" industries.

That would be the booze business.

$5 million in loans have been funneled to liquor stores, breweries, wineries and distilleries across Colorado through backing by the Small Business Administration since Congress passed the stimulus act last year. According to data gathered from the state's economic recovery website, Denver-based Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey received $1,085,000 in financing through the SBA, Longmont brewery Oskar Blues Homemade Liquids got $364,500 and "Fort Collins Brewery Inc" took in $1,411,000. Other federal stimulus loans went to Harvey Park Liquors, Boss Liquor Inc, Jordan Wine and Spirits, and the Black Ridge Winery.

By contrast, the Colorado Housing Finance Authority won't permit properties it finances to lease space to liquor stores or other alcohol-only businesses. Apparently, there is no uniform list of "sin businesses" between agencies, each of which sets its own policy on the types of commerce it deems unfavorable. The SBA won't facilitate commercial loans for religious endeavors, sex-product shops, or multi-level marketing companies - but it has nothing against the booze business.

"We do loan to liquor stores and other alcohol establishments. They just have to meet local standards," acknowledges SBA spokesman Daniel Hannaher. As part of the federal stimulus package passed by Congress last year, the SBA has guaranteed more than $29 billion in recovery loans to small businesses that were unable to obtain bank financing otherwise. "This was one way for the government to loosen up the credit market," he notes. "Businesses wanted a loan and just needed help."

Since millions of dollars in loans have gone toward Colorado businesses that help people get drunk, why not include businesses that help medical marijuana patients get high? "Liquor is a legal product, federally, and marijuana is not," Hannaher answers. "Until Congress were to change the law, there's simply no way we could consider funding such a businesses."

The logic is plain, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow for Mason Tvert of SAFER, a Denver-based organization that has long advocated the legalization of marijuana by comparing what it describes as the relatively benign effects of pot to the many social problems caused by alcohol.

Using stimulus dollars to assist the alcohol industry while shunning medical marijuana is "incredibly hypocritical," Tvert says. "More importantly, it's just bad policy and bad business." In terms of jobs and tax revenue, a loan given to a liquor store would generate as much economic activity as a loan given to a dispensary, he notes. "The state has passed regulations to tax the medical marijuana industry; they should be treated no differently than any other business. Instead, our government is denying loans to businesses whose goal is to help people with a medical need."

But the feds aren't the only ones tipping their financial bottle toward the alcohol business. In May, the city of Denver used an urban development grant to provide Great Divide Brewing with a $336,000 loan to purchase equipment and expand its beer-making operation. No sin in that for Mayor John Hickenlooper, who found great business success as a small brewery owner himself at one time.

Just don’t ask the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development for help financing your medical marijuana venture. Only some intoxicants are allowed as economic stimulants in this recession.