If you don’t understand the core nature of the business you yourself are starting, then you shouldn’t be starting that business. That business license was probably granted by the state, not the federal government. And just because the state didn’t say, “hey, you might want to think this through” doesn’t mean she shouldn’t think things through.

I guarantee you she knew what the federal laws were in a rough sense and likely knew EXACTLY what the federal laws were. One of the most common questions customers are going to ask employees of a legal weed place is whether this is legal.

There’s just such a huge difference between getting a job in an industry and starting a business in an industry. She probably had to build a business plan to get a loan to start the company, and that is when she should have been researching the legalities of what she was doing. She probably had to consult a tax attorney to get her company’s books in order, and that is another time when she should have been asking about federal legality.