Editor's note: This article has been reviewed and updated for accuracy in 2026. It’s a brave new world we live in as we head into 2023. There are nearly a dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, that have legalized cannabis for recreational purposes. Heck, even Motor City Michigan recently legalized the good herb! More states could join that list in the years to come. Also, a majority of states from coast to coast allow for the legal sale of medicinal marijuana to some extent. As recently as 2016, the legal cannabis industry in the U.S. did $6.7 billion worth of business. This figure ballooned to $25 billion in 2021. The number for 2023 will exceed $35 billion. These numbers are only likely to increase in the years and decades to come, especially if it is legalized federally. However, there’s one serious problem for the marijuana industry, regardless of whether you are in the dispensary business, recreational business, or even the hemp business. The problem is how do you collect payments. How do you manage payment processing in the U.S where there are still federal, state and local legal conflicts? Simply put, the problem is that cannabis payment processing is almost impossible for marijuana-related businesses to obtain. Naturally, this one big problem is causing a number of other complications for marijuana dispensaries and shops of all sizes. What Is Payment Processing? Payment processing is something most of us experience on a daily basis, whether we realize it or not. Any store or business we visit that accepts purchases via credit and debit cards has a third-party processor to handle those transactions. It’s become so commonplace that we don’t even think about it until it’s not there. Unfortunately, that is the situation for marijuana-related businesses through