Nikolas Schiller, co-founder of the marijuana legalization advocacy group DCMJ, said even businesses and pop-ups who claim to be Initiative 71-compliant have a misunderstanding of the current law, as gifting is not a purely charitable exchange and some value in the deal has to account for the plant.

“Just because the government hasn’t cracked down on that doesn’t necessarily make it lawful,” he said. “So there’s a lot of businesses that are operating in a very gray area in regards to what they think is lawful.”