Cannabis & Real Estate, Trump Approves

President Trump has finally given some clues about his administration's response to cannabis.

"Section 537 provides that the Department of Justice may not use any funds to prevent implementation of medical marijuana laws by various States and territories. I will treat this provision consistently with my constitutional responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

According to Business Insider, Tom Angell, founder of Marijuana Majority, an advocacy group, says that Trump's statement is the federal government's way of 'asserting their right' to go after certain medical marijuana businesses if they choose to at a later date. Michael Collins, the Deputy Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said that Trump continues to send mixed messages on marijuana.

Even so, the Trump Foundation still managed to quietly host a real estate/cannabis seminar in SoHo, Manhattan. The hotel hosted around 75 people on May 4th to discuss the requirements of opening a cannabis-related business.

Issues discussed were:

1) Location: the importance of finding a location with the right zoning for a cannabis or related business.

2) Aroma Control: Finding a location that won't bother the neighbors and investing in aroma control.

3) Strong Community Relations: Developing a positive rapport relationship with the local community early on is essential; obtaining a letter of non-opposition from the local municipality for insurance and financing,

4) Expertise and Compliance: In addition to being compliant as a regular business, you also need to understand all the particulars and peculiarities involved with cannabis businesses—including civil asset forfeiture laws. You don't want a boilerplate lease, but rather a special lease that doesn't allow landlord entry.

5) Insurance Coverage: Make sure all applications are error-free and keeping your nose clean, including keeping images of yourself smoking cannabis off social media.

According to Futureland Corp (FUTL), a real estate company servicing the cannabis industry, CEO Cameron Cox states these are just preliminary challenges to overcome. His biggest challenge has been with the licensing commissions that are understaffed and don't necessarily have policies and procedures in place. This causes major delays in getting approvals, which causes headaches for his clients.

I've taken the approach that I just need to sit down with the licensing commission, and go through the application line by line and ensure I'm doing everything right from my end. This also shows them my commitment to the local community.

He's not alone in his frustrations with the cannabis industry. According to Grow Condos, Inc, (GRWC) a turn-key cannabis real estate company based in Eagle Point, Oregon, CEO Wayne Zallen, "My biggest challenges have been the time it takes to process an application and the arduous requirements imposed by the Oregon laws. For example, a camera system than has to continuously record and store the information for 90 days requires large storage capacity. This makes the systems very expensive for the grower."

On a more positive note, Oregon is being very proactive in defending its choice to legalize cannabis. They even met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions this month when he discussed his concerns that Oregon remains a very active black market state. Part of the issue, however, is that with surrounding states still not legalizing it, cannabis demands a higher price, so diversion is occurring regularly, an issue that will be resolved by legalizing it on a federal level.

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