Sam Kamin and Joel Warner wrote about the struggles faced by the marijuana industry:

• Banks in Colorado and Washington refuse to offer loans or accounts to pot shops since while a couple of states have legalized weed, federal law still treats it as a drug and banks could get into trouble for working with “drug money”.
• With $2.34 billion in sales the marijuana industry is likely the largest without access to financial services.
• Even if banks could offer loans it’s unclear what they could take as collateral. Not the business itself since laws might change. And certainly not the plants.
• Some legislators have suggested a state-owned marijuana bank unconnected to the federal financial system and thus not covered by its laws.
• For an industry that’s forced to operate mostly in cash, the authorities appear to be doing their utmost to deny the businesses proper security.
• The DEA for example pressured armoured car companies to stop working with marijuana shops. And the Denver Police Department banned off-duty officers from doing work at marijuana stores.

Read more about the challenges of running a marijuana store here.

Source: Slate