Despite winning popular support in some state elections in recent years, Joseph Stevens has launched a new business venture that the “right people” just don’t like. The right people being bankers, that is.

Stevens is CEO of the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, N.J., a medical marijuana dispensary. Greenleaf opened in December 2012, after a two-year struggle to begin operations. Along the way, Stevens says he saw plenty of politics and red tape, but no financing. Local banks and credit unions just didn’t want to touch him.

“We spoke with several banks and credit unions in New Jersey, but to no avail. We just didn’t get financing,” Stevens says. “After first explaining that they weren’t in the habit of loaning to nonprofits, eventually they would tell us that what we did was just illegal.”

Determining just what is legal, or illegal, is the dilemma facing medical marijuana distribution centers. It’s also an issue that financial institutions in Massachusetts may face if they are asked to provide seed money for such centers.

A few states have now legalized the possession of medical marijuana for certain specified medical conditions. In turn, those states have begun legalizing distribution centers to provide medical marijuana for qualifying patients. Some individual states have also decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

But overriding all of these points is one clear fact – at the federal level, the possession, sale or distribution of marijuana is a crime – by anyone.

Greenleaf Compassion Center was founded in 2009, Stevens said and received its original state permit in 2010. But despite voter approval of medical marijuana and distribution centers, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t quick to sign on. The program was “put on hold” Stevens said, further complicating any efforts to seek financial backing.

For the longest time, it looked like the goal of Stevens and partners Julio Valentin Jr. and Jordan Matthews would remain just a pipe dream. But the trio persisted, came up with money on their own, and – once the climate had changed – finally opened the doors for business two months ago, to some degree of notoriety.

Zoned Out

Bruce Spitzer, director of communications for the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said there is no reason for local banks and credit unions to fear loaning to medical marijuana treatment centers. In other New England states where medical marijuana has been legalized, the dispensaries are legal as well.

“It’s no different than lending to any other business; you have to go through a standard loan review process,” Spitzer said. “That includes looking at the marketing analysis, collateral, marketing plans and competition.”

Ah, but there’s the rub. It can be difficult for these centers to come up with marketing plans and competition analysis when they find themselves unwelcome in a growing number of communities.

Take the example of Greater Boston. Last November, a majority of voters in Massachusetts approved the legalization of medical marijuana. The ballot initiative defined the conditions under which marijuana use would be acceptable, for what medical conditions and how it could be legally obtained by qualifying individuals.

But then, like dominoes, a series of communities raced to pass new zoning ordinances that would essentially ban such distribution centers. Taking a “not in my back yard” stance, special town meeting sessions quickly “zoned out” medical marijuana centers in Lynnfield, Wakefield and Saugus, to name a few.

“It’s similar to the zoning rules many communities have on the books regarding strip clubs,” Spitzer noted. The community doesn’t actually ban the establishment, it merely prohibits them except in specific zones, which the community doesn’t have at the moment.

That climate doesn’t help inspire banks and credit unions to open the purse strings, obviously. And Stevens said he sees the same scenario being played out in other states.

“They’re very up front and honest with us,” Stevens says of the loan officials he has spoken with. “They say, ‘We can’t lend you any money. But you’re free to open up accounts and deposit your money with us.’”

David Weldon can be reached at Dweldon646@comcast.net.