The Wall Street Journal reported that growers are most interested in warehouses bigger than 80,000 feet. Some indoor marijuana farmers want warehouses that are between 8,000 feet and 20,000 feet. These spaces can be primarily used for processing, packaging and storing.

We’re already seeing how this can be profitable for those in commercial real estate. Take Colorado, for example, where CBRE (Commercial Real Estate Services) reports that lease rates for industrial properties in northern Colorado (near Denver) are up to $8.40 per square foot in the first six months of 2016. compare that to the national average for industrial rent, which is at $6.30 per square foot. The marijuana industry has increased the cost of warehouse space for 60 percent, and renewal rates have spiked by 25 percent.

Forbes also explored some of the possible California locations that could soon be prime real estate if Proposition 64 passes. Those include:

• The 18,000-square-foot in total warehouse space in the 1100 block of Sante Fe Avenue in L.A.
• The 20,000-square-foot warehouse space in the 2200 block of Magnolia Street in Oakland.
• The 17,000-square-foot warehouse space in Chino, near enough to Anaheim and L.A. for deliveries in less than 60 minutes.

Although these prospects are certainly driving interest by investors, it’s important that each consider the potential liabilities by speaking with an experienced L.A. marijuana lawyer.

As it now stands, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Those whose property is being used to carry out cultivation and sales of illegal drugs risk the possibility of having their property and other assets seized by the federal government.

It’s called asset forfeiture and the federal government has an out-sized interest in it. In 2014, PBS Frontline reported the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had taken in nearly $1 billion in cash, cars, boats and other property forfeited due to ties to illicit drug trade.

Of course, we know far too many of those involved innocent parties who weren’t even convicted of any crime. Although criminal asset forfeiture can only take place after a conviction, civil asset forfeiture can be conducted under a system that considers the property owner guilty until proven innocent. Ninety percent of federal government asset forfeitures take place through this civil system.

Marijuana cultivators and distributors can be great tenants, particularly when you consider that banking laws prohibit them from keeping accounts. Because they don’t have credit and most of their dealings are in cash, most tenants agree to pay above-market rents in exchange for the risk.

And there remains a risk, though a calculated one. The federal government has largely taken a laissez-faire approach to prosecution of these cases. But that doesn’t mean it’s totally off the table, which is something landlords need to take into consideration. By discussing the benefits and liabilities of entering into such a venture with a knowledgeable marijuana lawyer, you can help to protect your property and investments.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Marijuana Legalization Is Ultimately A Real Estate Story — And That Has Big Implications In California, Nov. 3, 2016, By Ely Razin, Forbes

More Blog Entries:

California Cannabis Could Be What Autos Are to Detroit, Nov. 2, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Attorney Blog

The Michigan study is an ongoing, four-decades-long research on the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs. In this most recent analysis of the data, we find that those who are in the 40s and 50s used drugs in their youth far more frequently than the teens and 20-somethings of today. Excluding marijuana, more than 7 in 10 individuals who are in their 50s used illicit drugs at some point in their lives. When you include marijuana, that figure spikes to 85 percent – the vast majority.

When this cohort was in college, approximately half were actively using illegal drugs. Today, about 40 percent of adults who are of college age are using illegal drugs.

When researchers looked at college students in 1980 versus college students in 2015, they found:

• 36.2 percent of college students in 1980 were smoking cigarettes, compared to 20.1 percent today;
• 22.4 percent of college students in 1980 were using amphetamines, compared to 9.7 percent today;
• 16.8 percent of college students in 1980 were using cocaine, compared to 4.3 percent today.

Cigarette use in particular is at the lowest it’s ever been. Flashback just 15 years ago to 1999, and 44.5 percent of college students were smoking cigarettes. That has been more than halved to 20 percent today.

And when we look college students’ use of prescription painkillers, there has also been a dramatic decline. Whereas 9 percent of college students in 2003 were using prescription opioids, today, that figure has dropped to 3 percent. This is true even though we know the use and abuse of these types of drugs has grown exponentially in recent years, meaning most of that growth can be attributed to older users.

Part of this decline could be the fact that awareness of the dangers of some of these substances is becoming more clear. This theory also explains why we’ve likely seen an uptick in marijuana use around young people. Legal marijuana, both for recreation and as medicine, has done a lot to lessen the perceived danger of the drug. In addition to studies that show marijuana is less risky in many ways than alcohol, negative messages about marijuana on social media are uncommon.

Compare that to the messages being received about synthetic marijuana, sometimes referred to as spice. When this family of drugs started to become popular, we began to see a flood of Twitter and YouTube videos revealing the horrifying effects of some of those drugs. That undoubtedly played a role in the reduction of spice use among college students from 8.5 percent in 2003 to 1.5 percent in 2015.

Researchers are careful to say this doesn’t necessarily mean we are moving to becoming a drug-free society. It’s possible that this period of overall declining drug use could be met with a surge, as we saw from the 1980s to the 1990s. However, there is also a fair amount of evidence to suggest that an uptick in marijuana use is associated with declining rates of opioid use. Marijuana is known to be safer and far less addictive than opioid substances, and this fact will likely dictate future use patterns to some extent.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

College High: Students Are Using More Marijuana, Fewer Opioids, Sept. 9, 2016, By Angus Chen, NPR More Blog Entries: Federal Appeals Court: License Plate Profiling Illegal, Sept. 7, 2016, Orange County Marijuana Lawyer Blog

The Native American teenager had faced a federal misdemeanor – which carries a possible one-year prison term and a $1,000 fine – after another student was caught with the drug in his backpack and pointed to defendant as the person from whom he had purchased it. The amount of the drug found – 1 gram – is approximately enough to roll one joint, maybe two if you stretch it. In addition to the possible prison sentence and out-sized fine, the teen would have faced denial of federal student loans, public housing and government aid – for life.

Possession of marijuana has been decriminalized in Oregon. In fact, the drug has even been legal for adult recreational use in that state since 2014. But federal authorities became involved because the incident occurred at a boarding school for Native American students that is operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education. That meant this 19-year-old kid, who was preparing for college in this fall, had this possible one-year federal prison term hanging over his head.

State lawmakers called for the feds to back off, saying that while use of the drug by minors certainly was not acceptable, the fact that federal prosecutors were pushing for a penalty of this teenager over a single gram of the drug was a total misallocation of resources. L.A. marijuana lawyers followed the case as it became national news recently, with features in The Washington Post and other big news outlets.

Now, it seems prosecutors have acquiesced – interesting because prosecutors often pride themselves on not bending their decisions based on the whims of the public. However in this case, it appears they did have discretion and clearly, if a case called for discretion, this was it. Plus, it probably didn’t hurt that three Oregon congressional delegates issued a public letter to the U.S. Attorney in the region, demanding that he explain his drug enforcement priorities.

The teen was a first-time offender and the amount was tiny, particularly in a state where the drug is widely available for recreational use. Prosecutors confirmed that the charges will be dropped if the teen agrees to obey the law and maintains a job for 60 days. If he meets these terms, prosecutors will move for a dismissal of the charges in early October.

His public defender called the outcome, “a fair resolution,” adding he hoped this would be the last such case to be raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one of the first to raise ire about the case, later told the Willamette Week that while he was pleased to hear federal prosecutors were dropping the charges against this teen, he voiced concern about the fact that the charges were filed in the first place. He added that it was his hope the outcome in this case will set a precedent for the future that will steer prosecutors away from filing such cases to begin with, something Blumenauer called a “waste of time and resources.”

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Feds Dropping Charges Against Native American Teenager Who Faced a Year in Jail for Cannabis, August 2016, By Leah Sottile, Willamette Week

More Blog Entries:

Teen Faces Federal Drug Charges for 1 Gram of Marijuana, Aug. 11, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Lawyer Blog

The case, U.S. v. McIntosh, is a consolidated appeal involving 10 different cases of interlocutory appeals and petitions for writs of mandamus that arose from three district courts in two states (California and Washington). All defendants in these cases were facing federal charges for violation of the Controlled Substances Act. Each sought dismissal of their indictments or else alternatively to enjoin their cases on a Congressional appropriations rider that would bar the Department of Justice from spending taxpayer money to prevent states from implementing their medical marijuana laws. You may recall that in the last two years, Congress prohibited the federal government from spending money in a way that would block or thwart state medical marijuana laws.

It was the position of federal prosecutors that this ban didn’t undercut their right to go after those who cultivate and distribute the drug under federal law – even in states where marijuana was legal. But now, the 9th Circuit has clearly issued a response to that, which is a resounding: No.

Of course, it doesn’t mean these defendants are entirely off-the-hook because the judicial panel did not outright dismiss the cases. What it did was remand the cases back to the lower courts with the order to give defendants a chance to prove their actions were in line with state law.

Now this ruling only affects those cases that have been filed in the Western states and territories that are covered by the 9th Circuit. However, it is likely that other circuits are going to take note of this ruling, and it’s probable they will follow suit, if and when they are faced with the same issue.

Justices also noted that the law remains subject to change by Congress, which could decide to appropriate funds for such prosecutions – potentially immediately. On the other hand, wrote Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, the temporary lack of funding might become a permanent lack of funds for these actions if Congress keeps this rider in the upcoming appropriations bills.

If prosecutors choose to appeal – and they haven’t said they will – they could do so before a larger panel of the 9th Circuit, or else before the U.S. Supreme Court. L.A. marijuana attorneys have said they hope this marks the beginning of the end for federal prosecutions of medical marijuana operators, cultivators and patients who are following state guidelines.

In a recent high-profile case, federal prosecutors did choose to drop a civil forfeiture action against one of the biggest medical marijuana dispensaries in the country. However, the Department of Justice has continued to fight hard to be allowed to press forward with its criminal prosecutions.

One of the cases involved in the review involves five defendants from Los Angeles County accused of operating four marijuana dispensaries and growing plants at indoor grow facilities in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. In another case, four defendants were accused of marijuana manufacturing after authorities said they discovered 30,000 plants on 60 acres of land in Fresno County.

This is not to say prosecutors aren’t allowed to continue with these prosecutions. Rather, they aren’t being given the funds to do so.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Feds can’t spend money to prosecute people who comply with state medical pot laws, court rules, Aug. 16, 2016, By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times

More Blog Entries:

Police: Tainted “Candy” That Sickened 19 at Party Likely Marijuana, Aug. 12, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Lawyer Blog

Researchers dove into five years’ worth of prescription abuse information reported anonymously by employees.

What they found was this:

• In states that did not allow workers to have access to medical marijuana, 5.4 percent of those who were taking opioid medications were deemed “abusers” of that drug.
• In states that did allow workers access to medicinal cannabis, just 2.8 percent of those taking opioid drugs were deemed “abusers.”

Those who conducted the study identified “abuse” among opioid users as a person who:

• Was not receiving other care for pain relief;
• Received a greater than three-month supply of the drugs;
• Got opioid prescriptions from four or more doctors.

This research mirrors another released last July by the RAND Corporation and The University of California. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, that study showed the passage of state-level medical marijuana laws is associated with exponentially lower opioid overdose and death rates. Overall, researchers found that states that approved medical marijuana showed nearly 25 percent fewer opioid-related deaths.

Findings like these are huge when we consider the scope of the opioid problem. In 1999, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an estimated 4,100 opioid-related deaths. By 2010, that figure had shot up to nearly 17,000, and it’s continued to grow over since.

There are some 260 million opioid prescriptions written in the U.S. every year. That’s enough for every adult in America to have his or her own bottle. It’s estimated that 2 million Americans suffer from prescription opioid abuse and addiction. The fall-out of this is a $56 billion burden on the U.S. economy in terms of wrongful death, lost production, criminal justice resources and more.

It’s estimated that 1 in 5 people in the U.S. live with chronic pain. A significant portion of these suffer from a type of pain known as neuropathic pain, or nerve-related pain. It’s associated with a number of different diseases such as HIV, cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Many of these patients in states that allow medical marijuana report that it is very effective in helping to manage their pain, which allows them to continue to lead productive, fulfilling lives.

On the other hand, in states that do not allow the drug, many take some combination of opioids, conventional pain relievers and other drugs. The side effects of all this includes an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, erectile dysfunction and accidental overdose.

McGill University in 2010 conducted a study that analyzed the effect of marijuana on pain, anxiety and sleep quality. All of those given cannabis showed marked improvements in these three areas.

Research like this can be a powerful tool in the fight for legalization of marijuana across the country. For example The Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio recently published an article titled, “Could medical marijuana solve Ohio’s opioid problem?”

There is no dispute among medical doctors that marijuana is safer than opioids. Because it is also known as an effective pain medication for certain conditions, the solution seems obvious.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

The Opioid Crisis in America’s Workforce, May 2016, Castlight Health

More Blog Entries:

Whoopi Goldberg may Lose Job on View over Medical Marijuana Business, April 15, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Lawyer Blog