Not ones to shy away from controversy, we here at Fried On Business recently did a triple-header interview on the subject of medical marijuana business and research.
It was a fascinating discussion, and we kicked things off with Nicole Fried (954-492-4010, www.colodnyfass.com), an attorney at Colodny Fass, who gave us an update on medical marijuana legislation in Florida.
The Florida Senate recently approved marijuana as a treatment for terminally-ill patients, Fried said, and the legislation has been sent to Gov. Rick Scott for approval.
Fried said lawmakers in Tallahassee, particularly conservative Republicans, wanted to move carefully toward approval of medical marijuana.
“They don’t want to be California and Colorado, and have dispensaries on every corner, across from your kids’ schools. They wanted to do the Florida version. They wanted to take baby steps and make sure they created the regulatory framework,” she said.
“They took very small steps to get the medicine into the hands of patients that needed it. I think it’s a great sign that they are looking to new enhancements and different types of patients that can benefit from this.”
A few recent amendments expanded the list of ailments for which marijuana can be legally used as a treatment, she added.
UHealth guest Denise C. Vidot, Ph.D., a researcher with the University of Miami Department of Public Health Sciences, said their studies involve looking at emerging adults and middle-age adults to see the impact of marijuana use on metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is cluster of risk factors that – when working together – increase a person’s chance of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Vidot (dvidot@med.miami.edu) said it’s important to note that her research has not established any cause-effect relationship between marijuana use and metabolic syndrome. Right now, it’s just a study of relationships and associations.
“What we see so far is that in middle-age adults and emerging adulthood – 20-30 years old and above 60 – current use of marijuana is associated with lower weight circumference, lower BMI and lower blood sugar levels,” she said.
“When you hear those things, independently, it sounds like a good thing. But they are with higher blood pressure.”
Vidot, who is also Executive Director at The Student Myeloma Advocacy Coalition, said one of their newest studies on racial and ethnic groups shows Hispanic marijuana users have a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome. An important finding, given that they tend to have a higher rate of cardiovascular disease.
Paul Isenbergh, Senior Vice President at Dunton Commercial Real Estate Company in Denver, operates a cannabis business brokerage and consulting firm.
He used to be with Cushman & Wakefield in Miami, but moved to Denver to get out of the rat race.
He signed on with an NAI affiliate there and got an assignment to help a tenant exercise an option to buy a building that had a marijuana dispensary and grow operation.
The rest is history, and Isenbergh (305-632-0744, paulisen@aol.com) became a business broker selling licenses for grows and dispensaries.
“I saw one go by that was so favorable that I got a couple of partners, and now I own a dispensary. I’m putting my third grow together, and it’s all real good. I love it,” he said.
Now, I recently got some real estate data from Mike Silver of CB Richard Ellis showing that the marijuana industry in Colorado between 2009 and 2014 accounted for 35% of the industrial space absorbed.
The marijuana industry fills 3.7 million square feet of industrial space in Denver, and nearly 500,000 square feet of retail space there.
Industrial lease rates for the marijuana industry are two to three times the average rate, according to the research.
When he got there in 2011, Isenbergh said, Denver had an industrial vacancy rate of 14%, mostly in older, smaller manufacturing buildings, with pricing at $40 to $50 per square foot. Now, cannabis buildings with the right zoning sell for more than $100 per square foot, he said.
“It was like a God-send to many of these property owners that had a lot of vacancies,” he said.
“A lot of brokers have convinced their owners/clients to sell their properties with the proper zoning – because it’s a limited type of zoning, mostly the older zoning, and move their other, non-cannabis operations to other zoning and then lease out or sell these buildings at a huge premium.”
This was an amazing interview that included a discussion on the difficulty of banking and finance in this emerging cannabis industry.
Click here to listen to all three interviews on medical marijuana business and research.
