David R. Welch

David R. Welch

Young, but been around: That could describe both the marijuana business and Welch, a key player in ushering this budding industry through a tumultuous and shifting landscape of contradictory laws and regulations.

Welch has helped the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians regulate the cultivation and use of medical marijuana on its reservation and helped clarify the grandfather clause of city of Los Angeles' Proposition D for dispensary owners. He also helped establish a million-plus square-foot indoor grow facility in cooperation with the city of Desert Hot Springs and helped a marijuana-related brand develop, protect and strengthen its intellectual properties.

Welch said he's found two main types of people in the marijuana business landscape: what he calls "Wall Street types" who aren't really familiar with the ways of weed, and the "old guard," who have a deeper understanding of the plant and its consumers.

"Wall Street types have no idea about this business, but they have the backing and money and know how to finance deals, and they're very go-go-go," Welch said. But those people tend to fail, he added, because marijuana isn't a commodity - it's an agricultural product.

The old guard, in contrast, are more successful because they've been around marijuana longer. They can grow and maintain a plant and know what kinds of products people want.

"Those people are not go-go-go, but they are interested in dotting every i and crossing every t," he said.

Typically, Welch's old guard clients are excited to finally be in a place where they can feel freer from worries about jail, and they want to stay that way by doing everything right. That's where Welch comes in - and he's finding himself more and more in demand, as old guard operations who now dominate the market have come to trust his expertise.

To help the city of Santa Ana find the best approach to regulation, Welch acted as an advisor to the city and to the Santa Ana Committee for Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Access. With Welch's fundraising support, they passed Measure BB, a law crafted with the cooperation of the city council and medical marijuana businesses.

"Santa Ana was an example of creating a system where people that want medical marijuana can have it, while getting the city on board," Welch said. "The city wanted to have a say and to have a system that was fair, and the committee wanted to work with the city."

Welch, gratified to be able to play a role in what wound up a win-win, said things have gone so well that Santa Ana is now looking for ways to bring in even more medical marijuana businesses.

"My purpose in this firm is to change the law, and to normalize how these businesses are treated," he said.

- L.J. Williamson