NASHVILLE – In a Republican-led state where many top officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, oppose legalizing even medical marijuana, Tennessee’s massive $52 billion retirement plan holds a $720,000 investment in the nation’s blazing-hot pot industry.
The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System’s passively invested small-company stock fund, based on Standard and Poor’s S&P Smallcap 600 index, owns 7,009 shares in San Diego-based Innovative Industrial Properties Inc.
A real estate investment trust, IIP Inc. calls itself the “leading provider of real estate capital for the medical-use cannabis industry.” The company buys existing or still under-development medical cannabis-growing facilities and greenhouses in states where marijuana is legal. It then leases the properties to companies with state licenses to grow medical cannabis.
Tennessee Treasurer David Lillard told the Times Free Press that after abruptly learning the state had an investment in a marijuana industry company, he’s ordered pension fund managers to sell the IIP Inc. stock out of TCRS’ small-cap portfolio as soon as possible.
“I didn’t know we had this investment until the Chicago Sun-Times called up and we began digging around to find it,” Lillard said in an interview this week. “There are policy implications to this.”