Dear Pot Lawyer,
I lucked into a few thousand bucks. Can I invest in weed?
YES, BUT probably not in the way you're thinking.
The general rule in this country is that only wealthy people get to invest in private companies. These "accredited investors" are allowed to invest under an exemption to the Securities and Exchange Commission's private offerings rules. If you made $200,000 for each of the past few years, or your net worth is north of $1 million, you may qualify. Most of us do not qualify, and probably don't fall under one of the less common exemptions either. The idea is that most people could not weather a financial shellacking and the world is filled with crooks.
Not being an accredited investor still allows you to kick back and invest in publicly traded companies, which are listed on mainline exchanges like the NASDAQ and Dow. You could also buy Over-the-Counter (OTC) stocks, but that requires you to enlist a brokerage, meet minimum balance requirements, pay fees, etc. As of last week, the NASDAQ denied listing to a cannabis social network called MassRoots (long story), but that one still sells OTC—so if you do some digging, you can probably buy. For now, though, there are no weed companies on the large US indices.
So, are there any publicly traded weed companies? The answer is yes.