Pubdate: Sun, 28 Sep 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Steve Sebelius
Page: 1D

FINALLY, A GOOD CALL

For perhaps the first time since Nevada finally got serious about 
implementing its medical marijuana laws, a state regulation makes 
sense. The state's Division of Public and Behavioral Health announced 
it would not invoke its discretionary authority to limit the amount 
of marijuana grown in Nevada to between 650,000 and 1 million square feet.

That's the right call: The entrepreneurs who set up marijuana growing 
and dispensing businesses should be the ones making the decisions 
about how much they need, based on their best estimate of what the 
market demands. Sellers note that some products - such as lotions 
infused with marijuana - require more of the drug to manufacture.

Besides, says state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, who authored 
the bill that authorized the medical marijuana system in Nevada, 
that's capitalism.

"We wanted to attract the best and brightest (applicants), make it a 
for-profit model and let them come here and compete," said Segerblom, 
according to the Review-Journal's Arnold Knightly. "If they can grow 
better marijuana, let them grow it. We want competition so the price 
will come down and it's affordable for everyone."

Police suggested that allowing unlimited product would potentially 
create pressure to sell to unlicensed dealers, but one attorney 
representing a marijuana business said that's not so.

"If the concern is this product getting out in the black market, then 
not limiting square footage is the best way to keep it out of the 
black market," said Trevor Hayes, attorney for applicant Wellness 
Connection of Nevada and a former Review-Journal journalist. "If we 
limit the space and prices skyrocket in the regulated industry, 
people will be going to the black market to get cheaper unregulated product."

So score one for common sense. But only one.

The medical marijuana debate in Nevada has been bizarre since its 
beginning. Although voters legalized medical marijuana in 2000 and 
2002 - demanding the state provide a way for patients to get it - 
nothing was done on the supply side for more than a decade.

Then Segerblom took up the cause in the 2013 Legislature and got a 
dispensary bill through. Compromises were many, however, and the 
total number of dispensaries was limited. (This, of course, has the 
same negative effects as limiting the overall amount of marijuana 
that can be grown.)

It also shows that, no matter how much we talk about marijuana being 
a useful medicine, regulators really don't believe it. Do we limit 
the number of Walgreens pharmacies in Nevada? Do we propose strictly 
limiting the amount of Tylenol or NyQuil or Lipitor or Zoloft? Do we 
narrowly regulate the security arrangements or supply chain of CVS?

Of course we don't, because those businesses are dispensing medicine. 
According to medical science and the Nevada Constitution, marijuana 
is now medicine in Nevada, too, not that you'd know it from the 
labor-intensive way we're conducting applications for licenses.

Remember, two states in the union have legalized marijuana outright. 
And Nevada may soon join them: A petition seeking to repeal the 
state's marijuana prohibition and regulate marijuana the way we 
regulate alcohol is gathering signatures now.

Things have certainly changed in Nevada since the issue first 
surfaced. Once, in the early 2000s, I wrote about marijuana 
legalization and got a call from a nice-sounding man who informed me 
that a petition would shortly be circulated to get me fired for 
taking such a stance. I never heard from him again, and no petition 
ever materialized to my knowledge.

Now there are plenty of people wondering why this is even a 
controversial issue and predicting the eventual change in federal law 
that will see marijuana finally treated like other prescription 
drugs. That would allow medical marijuana to be sold in places such 
as Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart and Target.

But don't expect that to happen anytime soon. In the debate over 
marijuana legalization, it's common sense that's really limited.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom