Nick Lachey Could Soon Be A Billionaire Thanks To His Legal Weed Empire


This week, the good people of Ohio are heading to the ballot boxes and voting on whether to make marijuana legal; if successful in this measure, the state would become the fifth in America to roll back bans on the drug.
There’s a small catch, however – if Ohio does legalise marijuana, not just any old dingus will be allowed to grow and sell it. The ballot specifies that only 10 approved sites will be able to grow and distribute the green stuff.
Here’s where it gets really interesting. Of the 10 approved farms, one of them is owned by none-other than Nick Lachey, the former 98 Degrees singer and star of O.G. reality show Newlyweds: Nick And Jessica.
Lachey owns a 29-acre weed farm outside of Akron, and if a ‘yes’ vote is recorded, he stands to become very, very rich indeed.
He and others who have an interest in the farms – including athletes Oscar Robertson and Frostee Rucker and designer Nanette Lepore – ponied up somewhere in the region of $US 12 million to get the ballot off the ground, and advertise.
That’s in addition to the $US 10 million that Lachey paid for his property. Clearly, while Jessica Simpson was attempting to establish the difference between tuna and chicken, he was investing wisely.
#NeverForget
If the state votes to legalise marijuana, Lachey stands to make $US 1.1 billion every year from his investment, as all marijuana distributors in Ohio would be required to purchase their supplies from him, or one of his fellow mandated farms.
Ohio’s state legislators are not super thrilled about the ballot, and to counter a ‘yes’ vote, they have put forward a measure that would seek to ban monopolies from the state’s constitution, effectively squashing the ambitions of the 10 approved farms. 
Lachey presumably has his fingers and everything else crossed that this does not happen.

UPDATE: Aaaaaaaand, the amendment has been rejected. Sorry, Nick Lachey.
via Vulture / BBC News
Photo: Steve Granitz via Getty Images

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