If Illinois’ newly legalized recreational marijuana industry proves to be as successful as expected, the taxpayers of Tennessee, Texas and Alaska all would benefit.
Each of those state governments has put money into a publicly traded investment firm, San Diego-based Innovative Industrial Properties, that’s aiming to profit when recreational marijuana in Illinois becomes legal Jan. 1. The firm owns and leases back a marijuana-growing facility in downstate Barry.
A spokesman for the Alaska Department of Revenue’s treasury division says that state “did not invest in Innovative Industrial Properties as the result of a security-specific process but as part of a strategy replicating an index of which IIPR is a constituent.”
Tennessee has invested even though Republican Gov. Bill Lee opposed a move in his state to legalize even medical marijuana, an effort that failed. A spokesman for Lee didn’t respond to questions about what the governor thinks about his state’s investment in marijuana or whether he was even aware of it.
To read more, click on https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/19/20701384/recreational-marijuana-illinois-investments-state-governments-public-employee-pensions