Should chambers allow marijuana businesses to join? 

Colorado, California, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and coming soon to a state near you: marijuana dispensaries. The economic impact of these businesses is significant and the tax benefits to your community positive. 

The problem is chambers might be unclear about the ethics of serving a business that sells something that offends them personally or may have only recently become legal. 

I know plenty of chamber execs who don't drink but are fine with allowing bars to join. Maybe that's because prohibition was a century ago and we need some more time with this one? 

But let's look at this from a business perspective. Who benefits from the dollars moving to and from marijauna dispensaries? 

There are three primary beneficiaries in your local economy: 

1. Landlords and commercial builders. If you have a high vacancy rate, you can hate on weed and still love that your commercial real estate members have healthier revenues. The first thing one does after signing the lease is to contract for build-out modifications to the space. Win-win.

2. Credit Unions. I've stood in line on a Monday at my credit union behind one guy with a box of cash and another guy with a duffel bag full of cash. That duffle bag? it had $89,000 dollars to deposit and that was three days of sales. Wouldn't the banks love that business! But due federal banking regulations, it's mostly the credit unions who don't cross state lines who are uniquely positioned to serve these businesses.  

3. The previously unemployed -- and in many respects unemployable -- employees who have stepped up to serve the weedy. 

So next time someone in the chamber industry asks you, "A weed business wants to join... What do I do?" 

Ask em, "What are you smoking? Take the money and help the weedy."