Editor's Note: Navigating and staying up to date on one state's regulations can be challenging enough for cannabis businesses (and, actually, patients and consumers)—some state regulations are hundreds of pages long. Then businesses looking to launch in other states have whole new sets of rules to play by. It's not making things easy, that's for sure. It does seem that states (and the industry) would benefit from having more consistent regulations. Consistency would make the process of developing a regulated market easier, and it would certainly help compliance, no? I understand state legislators want to do what they think is best for their constituents (or sometimes their state coffer), but things are getting a little out of hand with every single state developing unique regulations. And, hey, here's a possible solution: Ending prohibition.
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DENVER – Marijuana entrepreneurs rushing into the booming market are running headlong into a patchwork of state-by-state regulations that make it hard to transfer their expertise, brands and staff— and even their profits.
Because the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana have developed widely divergent rules governing their semi-legal marketplaces.
In Colorado, for instance, retailers until recently had been required to grow the majority of the marijuana they sell to customers. But Washington state bans retailers from growing their own cannabis, forcing them to buy from state-licensed farms.
