Criminal
Oct. 23, 2015
Long way to go until 'legal' pot business
But hey, change is in the air. By next November's elections, as many as 10 states are on track to legalize or expand the legalization of marijuana.
Matthew L. Schwartz
Partner
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Matthew is a former federal prosecutor. He was recently a featured speaker in a session titled "Legal Marijuana Businesses Need Access to Good Banks and Lawyers" at the Cannabis World Congress held at the L.A. Convention Center. From 2005 to 2015, Mr. Schwartz was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was a senior member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and led some of the government's most important and high-profile prosecutions.
It's hard to be a "legal" marijuana company. You can't easily do something as simple as open a bank account, let alone obtain financing from banks or financial institution investors. You typically can't accept credit cards, and have to handle large amounts of cash. You can't take a tax deduction for your business expenses, weighing down profits. And at the end of the day, because you're selling or helping to sell a controlled substance, you're still committing a federal crime - even though...
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