Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Amid all the chaos and confusion of the Trump administration, one certainty abides: Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not like pot.
The former Alabama senator once joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "ok" until he found out they smoked weed. During a 2016 Senate hearing, he called marijuana a dangerous drug. He also didn't shy away from Reefer Madness-era moralizing: "Good people," he said, "don't smoke marijuana."
Federal law shares Sessions' sentiment. The US still bans marijuana outright, placing it in the same category as heroin and cocaine. But these days, opposing pot is bad politics. During the November election, marijuana legalization polled better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In Colorado, which has legalized both medicinal and recreational marijuana, one report found the industry added $2.4 billion and 18,000 jobs to the local economy in 2015. Even the staunchly conservative Florida governor Rick Scott has approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana for the terminally ill. Sending federal agents to raid marijuana dispensaries in the 29 states that have legalized weed in one way or another only seems likely to alienate voters.
"Does the GOP really want to piss off the senior citizens of Florida?" says Micah Tapman, who runs the Colorado-based cannabis startup incubator Canopy.
Tapman isn't betting on it. What worries cannabis entrepreneurs like him most isn't some blatant crackdown on dispensaries, but a more surreptitious war on drugs, in which government overseers like the Department of Labor or the Internal Revenue Service catch cannabis companies slipping up on the more mundane details of complying with laws around safety, environmental standards, and taxes. In other words, to stop pot, the Trump administration may find the answer in what it ostensibly despises most: government regulation.
Which, ironically enough, presents its own business opportunity. Today, there are businesses like Front Range Biosciences that test the quality of different growers' cannabis. Adistry, meanwhile, ensures cannabis companies are compliant with advertising restrictions. Other startups help businesses track the product through the supply chain, manage wholesale orders, and yes, even handle payroll–all so marijuana companies can focus on selling a product that could still technically land their proprietors in federal prison.
Complying with local and state regulations is already a migraine-inducing experience for most any small business, much less one trafficking in a federally banned substance. Laws limit where and how marijuana sellers can advertise. They require dispensaries to track and trace all cannabis products from "seed to sale." Even something as simple as paying employees poses challenges for these businesses, since big banks, still bound by federal law, can't work with payroll providers that service cannabis companies. If the federal government decides to pile on with a new regulatory war on drugs, marijuana entrepreneurs may need help. And so startups are springing up to provide it.
"There are a lot of ways they can stick their fingers in the industry without having the DEA go after the industry," says Keegan Peterson, CEO of Wurk, a payroll and compliance firm
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The Pot Startups Prepping for Jeff Sessions’ New War on Drugs -RocketNews
Contact: About -RocketNews
Photo Credit: Brand X Pictures
Website: RocketNews-Top News Stories From Around the Globe
The former Alabama senator once joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "ok" until he found out they smoked weed. During a 2016 Senate hearing, he called marijuana a dangerous drug. He also didn't shy away from Reefer Madness-era moralizing: "Good people," he said, "don't smoke marijuana."
Federal law shares Sessions' sentiment. The US still bans marijuana outright, placing it in the same category as heroin and cocaine. But these days, opposing pot is bad politics. During the November election, marijuana legalization polled better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In Colorado, which has legalized both medicinal and recreational marijuana, one report found the industry added $2.4 billion and 18,000 jobs to the local economy in 2015. Even the staunchly conservative Florida governor Rick Scott has approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana for the terminally ill. Sending federal agents to raid marijuana dispensaries in the 29 states that have legalized weed in one way or another only seems likely to alienate voters.
"Does the GOP really want to piss off the senior citizens of Florida?" says Micah Tapman, who runs the Colorado-based cannabis startup incubator Canopy.
Tapman isn't betting on it. What worries cannabis entrepreneurs like him most isn't some blatant crackdown on dispensaries, but a more surreptitious war on drugs, in which government overseers like the Department of Labor or the Internal Revenue Service catch cannabis companies slipping up on the more mundane details of complying with laws around safety, environmental standards, and taxes. In other words, to stop pot, the Trump administration may find the answer in what it ostensibly despises most: government regulation.
Which, ironically enough, presents its own business opportunity. Today, there are businesses like Front Range Biosciences that test the quality of different growers' cannabis. Adistry, meanwhile, ensures cannabis companies are compliant with advertising restrictions. Other startups help businesses track the product through the supply chain, manage wholesale orders, and yes, even handle payroll–all so marijuana companies can focus on selling a product that could still technically land their proprietors in federal prison.
Complying with local and state regulations is already a migraine-inducing experience for most any small business, much less one trafficking in a federally banned substance. Laws limit where and how marijuana sellers can advertise. They require dispensaries to track and trace all cannabis products from "seed to sale." Even something as simple as paying employees poses challenges for these businesses, since big banks, still bound by federal law, can't work with payroll providers that service cannabis companies. If the federal government decides to pile on with a new regulatory war on drugs, marijuana entrepreneurs may need help. And so startups are springing up to provide it.
"There are a lot of ways they can stick their fingers in the industry without having the DEA go after the industry," says Keegan Peterson, CEO of Wurk, a payroll and compliance firm
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The Pot Startups Prepping for Jeff Sessions’ New War on Drugs -RocketNews
Contact: About -RocketNews
Photo Credit: Brand X Pictures
Website: RocketNews-Top News Stories From Around the Globe
