Medical marijuana merchant accounts have seen a huge increase in applications and approvals since states have started to legalize medical marijuana. Payment processors do not want to break any rules or laws because it will jeopardize their complete business so when they deal with marijuana merchants they want to operate 100% above board. The catch 22 is that the US government still considers marijuana an illegal drug. State laws are constantly changing and the laws differ drastically from state to state. This requires the payment processor to invest more time and money keeping up to date with these law changes. Many merchants will need to conform to new laws from their state as the marijuana laws are updated since their establishment.

Marijuana merchants have been hassled since the beginning of the new medical marijuana laws. Many banks have accepted the business and then closed the business’ processing and discontinued accepting new business. This is mainly due to the problems banks face from the United States government. Banks started processing and when they realize that they might have the United States government coming down on them, they quickly change directions and remove all approvals they had once given to merchants.

Marijuana merchant accounts are available from a group of high risk payment processors however if you’re a merchant get ready to pay higher than normal fess. Since these banks and payment processors are accepting a large amount of risk from the United States government and possibly the state governments both where the merchants are located and where the payment processors are based. Offshore Merchants has been setting up these types of accounts since the news laws were made effective. Offshore Merchants will make sure that your business is successfully setup with a respectable payment processor. Usual setup time is 1-2 weeks.