re: Is anyone else watching the cannabis industry closely?

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of course when it goes legal this stock is next to worthless.

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I get the sentiment, but don't agree. Even if it is made legal tomorrow medical marijuana will still be required to be grown in highly regulated/equipment heavy buildings like IIPR owns. While they wont be able to get the same cap rates, due to the high growth nature of their tenants and large build out required I don't think many other REITs would be comfortable underwriting these assets. Alan Gold (Chairman of IIPR) had this exact business model with his previous company Biomed with medical testing facilities (similar underwriting of tenants) and sold that company to Blackstone for $8.6 billion. They do have a first mover advantage and I think in some ways legalization might help IIPR bc they would have a cheaper cost of capital to add leverage to the portfolio. Currently due to bank regulations they cannot obtain any traditional financing.