As legislators continue working to set up a legal retail market for recreational cannabis, there’s a chess game playing out between authorities and regulators, and entrepreneurs who aren’t waiting around to set up shop. For one, the current move is free weed. Gary Bozzini, the owner of, owner of Sky High Munchies LLC, said the online vendors he’s been using for payment processing have frozen about $140,000 in customer payments in their systems, barring him from withdrawing it to his bank. So he’s issuing refunds. “They’re holding up a lot of money on us because they’re saying we sell marijuana. We don’t sell marijuana, we sell munchies,” Bozzini said. “We’ll give it back,” he said, rather than let the companies keep it. The Williamstown-based company’s situation illustrates one major challenge that has cropped up in state after state as legalization expands. Because it’s still illegal at the federal level, federally insured banks don’t want to deal with marijuana money. Sky High is one of several companies that until recently called themselves “gifting services,” because customers order merchandise like food and clothing and then choose a “free gift” of smokeable or edible cannabis. That was until the state Attorney General issued cease-and-desist letters, saying the companies could be in violation of New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, which bars gifts that require a purchase. The cease-and-desist notices issued on June 15 don’t address marijuana possession, sale, or distribution but do mention potential violations of “other laws and regulations.”
Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news, 06/26/2021 17:25:00