This year on April 20, the U.S. legalized marijuana movement can celebrate some major progress in the past year. Unfortunately, the fact that marijuana remains illegal at the federal level means that the business of marijuana remains stigmatized.

As a result, many marijuana companies operating in the states that have legalized the drug are dealing with a number of hurdles that other industries avoid.

Last year, Michael Swartz, an analyst for Viridian Capital & Research said the U.S. marijuana industry suffers from a lack of “seasoned” executives and board members. Almost all of the public U.S. marijuana companies have stocks that do not trade on major exchanges.

The lone marijuana representative that trades on the NASDAQ, GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR GWPH 4.47% is up 16.6 percent so far in 2016.

“This is a tough place to find legitimacy. Fraud has run rampant,” says Hilary Bricken, a Seattle attorney and Canna Law Blog contributor.

“GW may be the only one that’s viable. The rest of these companies live…

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