Our Story
- Cannapliant Consulting was formed in 2023 by Christopher P. Parrington, who at that time had almost 20 years of legal experience advising financial institutions on compliance with state and federal securities laws, and FINRA rules and regulations. In 2014, Mr. Parrington was approached by one of his clients, a FINRA-registered broker / dealer, who had a branch office in Denver, CO, and a customer who wanted to open a brokerage account to invest in mutual funds with $300,000 in cash earned from the legal sale of marijuana under Colorado law. At that time, the answer was clear, and Mr. Parrington advised his client to turn its customer away. However, Mr. Parrington immediately realized that the state-legal cannabis industry was severely underserved from a compliance perspective, with compliance often being considered a “four letter word” within the cannabis industry. After talking with numerous legal and compliance "experts" in the cannabis industry, Mr. Parrington also realized that what most people consider to be “compliance” within the cannabis industry was vastly different from Mr. Parrington’s definition – most people believed that if the owner of a cannabusiness remained out of jail, then his or her business was considered compliant.
- From 2014 through 2023, Mr. Parrington has been actively involved in the state-legal cannabis industry, primarily as legal counsel to cannabusinesses and their owners, cannabis investors, and ancillary product and service providers including financial institutions providing traditional and investment banking services to the cannabis industry. As a Minnesota-based professional, most of Mr. Parrington’s cannabis experience was in other states until Minnesota legalized hemp-derived Delta-9 THC edibles effective July 1, 2022. As a result, Mr. Parrington has significant experience providing regulatory compliance advice to cannabusinesses, their owners, investors and ancillary product and service providers throughout the United States including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. While in private practice, Mr. Parrington served as underwriter’s counsel for broker / dealer firms working with cannabis companies to raise capital through initial public offerings in the U.S. and Canadian markets, represented a private equity fund that invested approximately $25 Million in a multi-state cannabis operator with operations in the U.S. and Canada, and advised clients on defending against and resolving regulatory investigations and enforcement actions commenced by state cannabis regulators including the Montana Department of Revenue, Cannabis Control Division, the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Department, the Minnesota Office of Medical Cannabis, and the Arizona Department of Health Services. In September 2023, Mr. Parrington retired from private practice at the law firm of Zuber Lawler LLP, a leading California-based national cannabis law firm and formed Cannapliant Consulting, a cannabis consulting firm focused on advising clients on issues related to compliance with federal guidance, state laws, and local government rules and regulations. Cannapliant Consulting believes that compliance reigns king in the cannabis industry and is focused on making sure that all of its clients are bankable, defensible, and insurable, the corner stones for any compliance program in the cannabis industry.
