Now that four states have legalized recreational marijuana and another twenty or so states have legal medical marijuana regimes, we are hearing people talk about how taking their legal pot across state borders by car or by air is no big deal. Unfortunately, it is a big deal. A really big deal. It should first
A few weeks back, our nation’s current attorney general, Eric Holder, announced he would be resigning the position he has held since the start of the Obama administration, once his replacement is named and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Holder’s tenure is viewed somewhat as a mixed bag — earning kudos for his efforts to
Why do commercial landlords still hesitate to rent to marijuana businesses? In addition to the remote possibility of a landlord getting arrested and prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating the Federal Controlled Substances Act, landlords face the very real threat of losing their property via a civil asset forfeiture. The federal
Be it the IRS, the Bureau of Reclamation, or the banks, the conflict between state and federal laws on marijuana can cause problems to those in the marijuana industry. You should now add filing for bankruptcy to the list. When businesses go (or are near to going) under, they typically file for bankruptcy in a
The Department of Treasury today issued guidance for financial institutions that want to do business with the marijuana industry. The primary force keeping banks away from the marijuana industry has always been regulations issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dealing with money laundering. The Bank Secrecy Act that FinCEN enforces requires banks to investigate their customers and to neither negligently or knowingly do business with bad actors. State-legal marijuana businesses have always fallen into the category of bad actors for the banks, so they avoided potential fines by refusing to provide banking services to marijuana businesses. Today's regulations, however, clarify that banks can provide services to marijuana businesses without running afoul of federal regulations, so long as they abide by the following:
