A blog chronicling the evolution and implementation of cannabis laws in the United States
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana.
State and local news dominates this week. Los Angeles will change its cannabis licensing program. Colorado’s governor signed a law that allows pardons for minor marijuana offenses. A school funding initiative’s court battles may have implications for marijuana in Idaho. Medical…
Continue Reading The Week in Weed: July 3, 2020
When we all sheltered in place in mid-March, social media accounts everywhere reflexively joked how marijuana use was about to skyrocket like wine consumption and On Demand streaming. True to form, recreational marijuana retailers in LA and several markets in the US where stores remained open saw an immediate spike in sales; there was a 159% increase in California over…
Continue Reading To Live and Die in LA: Despite Increased Demand, Cannabis Retailers Still Fight for Life in Light of the Pandemic – Is Help on the Way?
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana.
Yet again,COVID-19 dominated the news, in the marijuana industry and in every other aspect of life. The lack of funding for marijuana businesses in the stimulus packages, the halt to state legalization efforts, the issues surrounding Massachusetts (yes, those continue), even…
Continue Reading The Week in Weed: April 24, 2020
Recently, I had the opportunity to moderate panels on cannabis and commercial real estate at programs held in Los Angeles and Chicago. I won’t say it was the best of times or the worst of times, but I will say “it was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness.”
It was interesting to compare the programs and the audiences in the two cities. In Chicago, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2014, and recreational marijuana has been legal for just over a month, people from many facets of the real estate industry — brokers, architects, contractors, real estate owners — came to learn about the new opportunities and pitfalls of the cannabis industry. To be sure, some were experienced, having participated in the medical marijuana business, but others were, well, naïve about how pervasive local, state and even federal laws are in regulating cannabis use of commercial real estate.
In LA, where medical marijuana has been legal forever and recreational for three years, the commercial real estate industry has had enough experience with the cannabis industry to experience the impact of various laws and regulations on commercial real estate. The audience came prepared to hear about how the cannabis and commercial real estate industries were addressing some of the issues resulting from the intersection of the industries.
Here are some key takeaways from the two panels:
Continue Reading Tale of Two Cities: Cannabis and Commercial Real Estate
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana.
That’s a record high.
The Los Angeles City Council…
Continue Reading The Week in Weed: December 8, 2017
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana.
GOP lawmakers stripped an amendment from a bill Wednesday that would have allowed doctors in the Department of Veteran Affairs to recommend medical marijuana…
