Legal Weed’s Regulation Mess
To outward appearances, marijuana looks increasingly normalized. Expensively packaged weed, sleek dispensaries and the CBD obsession have recast the drug as sophisticated, even healthy.
Since 2014, when the country’s first legal recreational cannabis market opened in Colorado, the industry has enjoyed extraordinary growth. Recreational use is now legal in 11 states, and medical is allowed in more than 30.
HIGHLIGHTS
- From a regulatory perspective, cannabis remains uniquely slippery.
- As the industry grows wealthier and the large multi-state companies compete to increase their footprint, the, regulatory issues are only getting thornier.
- Many individuals with capital to invest in start-ups have professional and reputational reasons why they can’t be formally associated with a marijuana.