How The Cannabis Industry Can Begin Interstate Commerce— Legally

By Will Yakowicz, Forbes on November 3, 2022

A federal ban on marijuana and several state laws make selling and transporting weed across state lines illegal. Here’s the road map for changing that.

f Jonathan Elfand is good at anything, it’s shipping weed across borders. In the 1990s, he smuggled cannabis from Mexico by sealing it inside empty salsa cans and packing them on a truck headed to San Diego. The cannabis, totaling a few tons over seven years before the feds caught him, made its way to Florida, New Jersey and New York.

The enterprise eventually earned Elfand some time in prison for distribution, but he also spent a lot of time reading federal and state laws—and he began putting his unique arguments into action. After reading New York’s marijuana law, Elfand opened Empire Cannabis Club in 2021, a marijuana dispensary chain with locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn—all without a license.

– Read the entire article at Forbes.