Marijuana Blog

Two businesspeople in Arizona are out $500,000 in loans they gave to a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado because a judge says medical marijuana loan contracts cannot be enforced.

In August 2010 Mark Haile and Michele Hammer loaned $250,000 a piece to Today’s Health Care II, expecting to be repaid like anyone who loans money. But in March of 2011 THC defaulted on the loan. When no money was forthcoming, Haile and Hammer sued.

Seemed like an open and shut case except for one thing. Marijuana is illegal under the Federal Controlled Substances Act, so on April 17^th of this year Superior Court Judge Michael McVey ruled that the plaintiffs were entitled to no money.

So marijuana prohibition screws two more people in an ever-growing list. This will also have the effect of drying up medical marijuana loans – not that there were many places for that to start with. And the economics of the medical marijuana industry grow even smaller.

Haile and Hammer’s lawyer was surprised by the verdict, but THC’s lawyer was not. "It's a classic supremacy issue--federal versus state," William Kozub said. "Take the marijuana out of it. Just make it a regular commercial dispute for something that's illegal under federal law. It's that simple. Drug lords from Colombia cannot come to court and say 'They sold me bad cocaine.’”

Quite a smug comment, but he did win so I guess some of that is to be expected. And I would expect THC to be shunned in the marijuana and business community as the bad investment they are. But it’s a shame that marijuana prohibition not only ruins lives and enriches criminals, but its economic impact is immense. Resources wasted, tax money lost, job-growth suppressed and investment opportunities drying up.

Truly a shame.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com