The distribution and sale of marijuana is illegal federally while an ever-increasing number of states have embraced and monetized the sale of medicinal and/or adult recreational marijuana use. Taught by a former federal prosecutor, the following will be covered: (i) the backstory to the federal-state “stand-off,”(ii) the inability of marijuana businesses to utilize, among other things: federally-insured bank accounts, customary business tax deductions, and bankruptcy protections; as well as (iii) essential information to ethically “practice in the field” to include: cultivation, storage, testing, marketing/packaging, distribution, sales, financing, employment, licensing, regulatory and land-use compliance. Each student will, over the course of the semester, create a marijuana business plan (MBP) involving a commercial aspect (students’ choice) of the marijuana business.
