By Daniel Markofsky
Grow, process, store, sell, use. Cultivate, trim, dry, dispense, ingest, consume, administer, vape. Concentrate, wax, BHO, shatter, infuse. Key license, occupational license, licensed premise, limited access area, MED, shipping container. Owner, practitioner, budtender.
A common accepted language is taken for granted in daily life, but you won’t find many marijuana terms defined in the dictionary. If you find them, they likely will not be defined as they are used in the industry. Sometimes this is called marijuana slang. Many terms common to the Legal Marijuana Industry (that’s a term, too) have very little or no historical usage in real estate transactions. Attorneys know that terms need to have common accepted meaning or be defined to make an agreement perform as intended. Defining terms in an emerging industry is a novel challenge.
Whether you are a landlord or tenant, buyer or seller, borrower or lender, your real estate counsel need understand and be able to work with the industry lexicon. Definitions and terminology unique to the marijuana industry can make or break the real estate deal, and how the property serves and performs for the various parties over the term of the occupancy or ownership. Terminology continues to evolve so your real estate counsel must stay current.
Your real estate legal counsel needs to be able to structure and document each real estate transaction to satisfy conventional and historical real estate law requirements while simultaneously seeking to provide for what we don't know we don't know. Today's industry leaders and their counsel are those who have been able to blend proven business concepts into the void.
Contact our Colorado attorneys at Cantafio & Song PLLC for all your legal needs. We can be reached at (888) 458-0991.