Ever try valuing a business that is 100 percent illegal?

Specifically, one shrouded in ­irrational exuberance, lacking audited ­financial records and topping the U.S. attorney general's hit list?

Because “plant touching” marijuana ­related businesses (MRBs) have only been operating between a decade in Colorado to as little as several months in 28 other states, few reliable business valuation benchmarks exist and most are jurisdictional-specific.

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Four Stages of a Marijuana-Related Business

The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 ­prohibits marijuana's manufacture, distribution, dispensation and possession and lists it next to heroin as a Schedule I controlled substance having “a high potential for abuse” for which there's “no currently accepted medical use in treatment,” 21 U.S.C. Sections 801, Et. Seq (1970). Those manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing marijuana, or touching it at some point along the supply chain (planting, ­cultivating, harvesting, processing/extracting, testing, packaging, disposing, transporting and dispensing), are deemed “plant-touching” MRBs.