They’re still liable for paying taxes, which they do largely by mailing the IRS shoeboxes full of cash. By paying taxes they’re essentially admitting to a felony to the US government, which makes them trivially easy to raid.

That said, raids are relatively rare now due to executive order and the Oakland mess. In 2012 the DEA raided Oaksterdam [1] without properly notifying the Oakland PD, tying them up right as a local college was getting shot up [2]. It was a minor scandal that collapsed support for the DEA on the west coast and they haven’t done much cannabis enforcement since.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaksterdam_University#Raid

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos_University_shooting

> it still a federal offense even though it is legal at the state level?

Yes, though there is a federal policy against most enforcement activity where use is allowed by state law. But, yes, its still illegal, and those making lots of money in (or even as major investors in firms in) the industry are violating the drug kingpin statute and, were the non-enforcement policy to be removed, coild suddenly find themselves facing 20+ year, or life, sentences in federal prison.

This has a significant effect on who is in the industry and how they conduct business.

The concise “yes” is correct, but a more explanatory answer might be helpful. Cannabis is still a schedule 1 substance by federal law. Almost all federal jurisdiction in state matters is derived from the interstate commerce clause in the constitution. When the first states passed legalization measures, the DOJ issued a memo (Cole) basically saying they would not intervene in states with well defined rules for tracking cannabis sales to prevent product crossing state lines. Credit card processors and most banks are either not willing or not allowed to process electronic transactions for cannabis because they do tend to cross state lines.

Yes. It’s farcical at this point.

It is still a federal offence and even if there are no raids, there are indirect fights, including civil asset forfeiture or even raiding the armored transports that carry the cash from the sales. Feds are harassing the state-legal merchants by targeting the money movement at any level.

Yes