You are a licensed attorney in California. Assume your client wants to start a marijuana business in Los Angeles, California.

As you may know, recreational and medical marijuana is now legal in California (i.e. under state law) but continues to be illegal under federal law. Specifically, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, in which it categorized marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin and LSD. Further, Congress can regulate and restrict the intrastate (entirely within a state) consumption of marijuana via the Commerce Clause (See Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005); more about the Commerce Clause in Week 7).

Therefore, if a California client consulted you about wanting to start a marijuana/cannabis business, you would have to potentially advise the client on the legal and illegal aspects of his business. Further, as a licensed attorney, you are bound by state ethical rules which require that you shall not "advise a client to violate federal law or assist the client in violating federal law in a manner that would enable the client to evade arrest or prosecution for violation of the federal law." (See California Rule of Professional Conduct Rule 1.2.1)

Given this conundrum, how best should one proceed?