The 10th Circuit court ruled on August 21, 2015, that neither Chapter 7 nor 13 is available to a marijuana business owner. The court stated that because of “the federally illegal marijuana based income stream, the debtors cannot fund a plan without breaking the law, and are therefore ineligible for relief under Chapter 13.”
While this not unexpected from my perspective, the ruling emphasizes that the dichotomy between federal and state law will continue to wreak havoc on the marijuana industry until actual laws are changed. This is a painful reminder that while current federal policy has permitted the proliferation of the cannabis industry in Colorado and other states – it is just policy, not actual law.