Dispensaries Number 10 Instead of 18 Allowed Clark County commissioners on Monday rejected dozens of applicants for medical marijuana dispensaries, including eight who already won approval from the state. The 5-1 action, with Commissioner Tom Collins opposed, sets the county up to have 10 dispensaries in unincorporated areas instead of the 18 allowed under state law. County officials said they are hopeful the state will grant provisional certificates to applicants who already have county permits but currently lack state approval. [continues 1053 words]
Applicants Eager to Find Spots in State's Gold Rush The first medical marijuana dispensary in Nevada is yet to open, but the lawsuits are already flying as applicants jockey for a starting position in the state's green gold rush. GB Sciences Nevada LLC, a company that won city approval for a Las Vegas dispensary but missed the cut on state licensing, has filed a lawsuit challenging the state's rankings. The state also faces a lawsuit from seven dispensary applicants hoping to open in unincorporated Clark County who gained county approval but not state approval. [continues 1244 words]
Re "Legalize marijuana for recreational use" (Let Freedom Ring, Nov. 27): In Colorado, sales of retail marijuana have reaped about $18.9 million in state taxes from January through June. Crime is down. Housing prices up. Unemployment down. Sales tax revenue up. And we're spending less time on incarcerating fellow Americans for pot in their pockets and more time creating jobs. Start smart: join us at the Marijuana Business Academy. If you dare. Let's be very clear: MJ is "legal" in Florida already and has been for 23 years. Don't believe the hype. Read. Learn. Know. Don't fall for the lobbyist trap. Take your American liberties or they will never be yours to hold. KC Stark Colorado Springs [end]
LAS VEGAS - After decades helping lead the fight against the national war on drugs, Ethan Nadelmann recently joined thousands of marijuana entrepreneurs here celebrating legalization - and found the scene kind of irritating. The rapidly expanding legal pot industry has started to make some people rich, but the new pot capitalists are stingy about keeping the momentum for legalization building, Nadelmann said. The wealthy donors who have long bankrolled groups like Nadelmann's Drug Policy Alliance, anchored by billionaire George Soros, have taken notice. They got involved because of concerns over racial justice and civil liberties. If those issues are going to be overshadowed by the opportunity to sell cannabis candy bars to college kids, they're starting to say, then maybe the people making the money should bear the cost. [continues 859 words]
Time did not heal all of the wounds inflicted on Lance Cpl. David Counts during the Korean War. "I shouldn't be here, but I did make it back," said the former Marine Corps truck driver. "The things I've seen in my life, it's not been good," said Counts, who copes with post-traumatic stress disorder by smoking medical marijuana. "It stays with me every day." Veterans Affairs physicians prescribed 10 drugs, including those for anxiety and depression, for Counts. He recently started using medical marijuana after a VA nurse recommended it to him, even thought it's an illegal drug under federal law, he said. [continues 1206 words]
Patients Must Be Patient a Little Longer Medical dispensaries for marijuana will soon appear in Nevada, but they are not likely to be accompanied by the free-swinging procedures that once characterized the California industry. "It's marijuana," said Clark County Sen. Richard "Tick" Segerblom. "From my perspective, whatever you do, no one should be going to jail for marijuana. It's just marijuana." Segerblom is one of a number of advocates of medical use of marijuana who have worked for years to move the state to a different stance on the medicine. In 2000, voters approved the use of medicinal marijuana. However, Nevada cardholders were required to grow their medicine on their own. Now, 14 years later, the push for dispensaries in Nevada has been successful. Up to 55 dispensaries will be opening across the state. With the exception of some of the smaller counties, all the major cities and counties have approved dispensaries in their area. [continues 1120 words]
Several Applications Approved Locally Rejected by Agency Nearly half of the 18 medical marijuana dispensary applications that Clark County commissioners approved have an uncertain fate, as they failed to win state support. The development has brought about frustration and unanswered questions among county officials and applicants who are now in limbo. The county and the state face a quandary as Nevada prepares to welcome the new industry: The state has approved only 10 of the county's 18 selected dispensaries. The final result could be that the county ends up with only 10 dispensaries instead of its 18 in early 2015. But that isn't a foregone conclusion - or a desire of county commissioners. County officials are still researching the issue and said Tuesday they plan to revisit the issue at a Dec. 3 meeting. [continues 817 words]
Legalization Opens Paths for Investors HENDERSON, Nev. - The frenzy in the cavernous Green Valley Resort ballroom might have passed for any conference of entrepreneurs pitching their business plans to poker-faced angel investors - until an organizer took the podium for a public service announcement. Please stop smoking weed out by the parking lot, he implored. Hotel security did not approve. The gathering this month of several hundred Wall Street types, tech industry disrupters, agricultural enthusiasts and assorted others shrugged and went back to the business at hand: leveraging the legalization of marijuana into a windfall. [continues 950 words]
Pot Hedge Funds and Others Join the Frenzy to Turn Legalization into Financial Windfall. HENDERSON, Nev. - The frenzy in the cavernous Green Valley Ranch Resort ballroom might have passed for any confab of entrepreneurs pitching their business plans to pokerfaced angel investors - until an organizer took the podium for a public service announcement. Please stop smoking weed out by the parking lot, he implored. Hotel security did not approve. The gathering last week of several hundred Wall Street types, tech industry disrupters, agricultural enthusiasts and assorted others shrugged and went back to the business at hand: leveraging the legalization of marijuana into a windfall. [continues 1055 words]
CARSON CITY - Backers of an initiative petition to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Nevada said Friday they have collected far more than the required number of signatures to bring the measure to the ballot in 2016. Joe Brezny with the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol said the group plans to turn in about 170,000 signatures to county clerks Wednesday. The group needs 101,667 signatures from registered Nevada voters to qualify the measure. Brezny said he expects to have nearly two times the number of signatures needed in each of the state's four congressional districts. [continues 126 words]
Recreational Marijuana Coming to Nevada Republicans weren't the only ones living the high life on Election Day. Proponents of legalized, recreational marijuana also were big winners, with decriminalization measures passing in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Nevada could be the next state to join them. Oregon's ballot measure passed Tuesday night with 54 percent of the vote, creating the country's third legal market for recreational marijuana (Colorado and Washington state voters passed similar measures in 2012). Oregon residents 21 and older can now possess and grow marijuana. Hours later, Alaska became the fourth state, with 52 percent of voters approving a measure to tax and regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana, making its use legal for people 21 and older. Florida voters narrowly rejected recreational marijuana despite providing majority support - that state's measure required 60 percent of the vote to pass but received 58 percent. [continues 407 words]
Lawmakers Face Variety of Upcoming Issues About Medicinal Use CARSON CITY - Medical marijuana dispensaries are on the verge of becoming a reality in Nevada but that doesn't mean the smoke has cleared on a number of pressing issues related to the medicinal use of the drug. From concerns about what some argue is Nevada's indefensible standard for driving under the influence of marijuana to whether college students should be able to use medicinal marijuana on campus, a whole array of issues will likely come forward for debate in the 2015 session of the Nevada Legislature. [continues 701 words]
Not everybody has been happy with Nevada's medical marijuana process, but that doesn't mean it's broken. That's according to investment banker Leslie Bocskor, a founding chairman of the Nevada Cannabis Industry Association and adviser to five Southern Nevada medical pot permit hopefuls. Bocskor has provided seed funding and permitting guidance to a dozen pot entrepreneurs looking to navigate land use and business licensing in Nevada and two other states. He said the Silver State's two-pronged approach to pot permitting has acquitted itself nicely, especially when stacked up against oft-criticized systems in Colorado and California. [continues 282 words]
Re "Return of the Messenger" (Feature story, Oct. 2): After reading your article on Gary Webb, I was saddened to see his cause of death once again listed as suicide. Really? this man uncovers a drug-running scandal that winds up implicating two former presidents and our intelligence-gathering apparatus and then takes his life by shooting himself twice with a .38 revolver? Again, really? The Mockingbird machinery is obviously still in place and well oiled. I'm sure you're aware the first shot exited through his lower left jaw. Please show on a diagram an angle how this is possible without it being a ridiculously counter intuitive way to hold a weapon. To the other readers out there, stand in front of a mirror pretending to hold a revolver and try to find a believable way to to make that first shot. It doesn't work. What more can be said, other than "the mighty Wurlitzer plays on." Robert Franklin Sun Valley [end]
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. [continues 559 words]
UNLV's most impactful recruit this year might be nowhere near the basketball court. Nevada's state and federal lawmakers have been working to bring medical marijuana researcher Dr. Sue Sisley to the university to conduct a pilot study on the safety and efficacy of marijuana on veterans with chronic and treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder. While the study would be financially supported by sponsors and not receive any federal money, it has received all the federal approvals, said Sisley, who has been working on securing the study since 2011. She is hoping the university will provide the research space. [continues 1258 words]
To the editor: Now that marijuana is becoming more accepted in our society, people are fearful that we will have lots of motorists driving around on our streets impaired. Here's a news flash: We already have drunken drivers, people texting and playing games with their cellphones, people trying to eat a three-course meal while steering their vehicle and a host of other distractions once we get on the road. Let's face it, the streets are a jungle and it is survival of the fittest. People smoking pot and driving is just one more spoke in the wheel, no more or no less dangerous than any of the other factors. Tim Hicks NORTH LAS VEGAS [end]
Nevada Regulation Allows Limits on Cultivation of Marijuana The cost of medical marijuana might already be headed upward in Nevada, and the dispensaries and grow houses haven't even opened yet. The situation has drawn concerns from not only the entrepreneurs who hope to make lots of money from such operations but also from local governments that have approved applicants hoping to break into the fledgling industry. At the heart of the matter is a state regulation that allows, but doesn't require, the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health to limit the cultivation of medical marijuana in Nevada. The state estimates Nevada needs about 650,000 to 1 million square feet of medical marijuana cultivation space to support the needs of Nevada residents and out-of-state visitors with medical marijuana cards. [continues 1149 words]
Wolfson Argues Current Law Is Too Vague to Determine Driver Impairment Determining whether a motorist is under the influence of marijuana is much more difficult than determining whether a motorist is under the influence of alcohol. Nevada's DUI marijuana laws need to be changed to reflect the impairment of the driver, not just a standard blood level, according to Clark County's top prosecutor, some lawmakers and pot advocates. In Nevada, if there is enough THC - marijuana's active ingredient - in the blood system despite passing a field sobriety test, the driver is "per se" guilty of DUI of a controlled substance; per se meaning the driver is guilty without consideration of extraneous factors. [continues 1067 words]
To the editor: Regarding medical marijuana, Rep. Dina Titus stated she supported an amendment to a bill stipulating that financial institutions would not be penalized for working with the medical marijuana industry ("Titus: U.S. law will keep banks out of the medical pot industry," Aug. 28 Review-Journal). The amendment was also supported by Reps. Joe Heck and Steve Horsford. Rep. Mark Amodei voted against it. All four Nevada representatives voted for another amendment that denied funds for the Justice Department to prosecute doctors and others who abide by state laws. [continues 219 words]
The state's public college system continues to ban pot out of fear of losing federal funding even as Nevada is moving toward opening its first medical marijuana dispensaries early next year. The Board of Regents on Thursday gave initial approval to an amendment to include medical marijuana to the long-standing policy banning controlled substances on all campuses and system facilities. The policy update includes possession, use, cultivation, manufacturing and delivery. Marijuana remains an illegal controlled substance under federal law, and university system officials are concerned that allowing any marijuana use would jeopardize nearly $500 million in annual federal funding, including the nearly $370 million in student financial aid. [continues 583 words]
My neighbor and friend Andy Whyman wrote a guest column in the Aug. 15 Sierra Sun and Aug. 24 Bonanza stating his case for legalizing pot. Hopefully after he reads this we will still be friends. But Andy is just plain wrong on this issue and here is why. His opening paragraph states that "the criminalization of marijuana is a war on citizens, particularly citizens of color." So by that reasoning we should legalize killing in the inner city neighborhoods for the same reason. Or maybe make mass murder legal because it is a war on white people. [continues 741 words]
No Neon, No Problem, Says City in Announcing Waivers If you want to set up a business on Las Vegas Boulevard between Washington and Sahara avenues, one thing's for certain: You will need a neon sign. Unless you're in the medical marijuana industry. Though the city's Scenic Byway Plan requires all establishments in that part of the boulevard to have signs with 75 percent neon to preserve the road's storied history as a glowing desert landmark, the city of Las Vegas is making an exception for owners of the medical marijuana dispensaries rapidly spreading across the Las Vegas Valley. [continues 638 words]
The federal illegality of pot hangs "like a cloud" over banks wanting to be involved in the medical marijuana industry, Rep. Dina Titus told an industry advocacy group Wednesday. "Bankers are not allowed to do business with what is considered an illegitimate activity," said the Nevada Democrat. "Dealing with marijuana is still illegal under federal law, so banks are hesitant to get into that business as much as they would like to." However, the best way to provide legitimacy to the new industry is to provide access to the federally regulated banks, she said. [continues 528 words]
It's not surprising that both the Florida Sheriff's Association and the Florida Medical Association oppose legalizing medicinal marijuana. Expanding public access to legal marijuana is bad for business. Locking people up for minor drug offenses and maintaining a monopoly on the bountiful pain-relief industry are two aspects of the status quo that law enforcement and physician groups have an interest in maintaining. Sure, they dress up their concerns in different terms. But I don't buy it. "The dangers of marijuana have been well-documented in recent years with increased crime and traffic accidents in states that have passed legislation legalizing marijuana," the Florida Sheriff's Association announced. "For example, of the 20 states with the highest driver acknowledgement of drugged driving, 15 were states that have passed legislation legalizing marijuana." [continues 567 words]
Now that the Carson City Board of Supervisors has approved two "medical marijuana" pot shops for our town, Sheriff Ken Furlong and his officers should prepare themselves to deal with the dangerous side effects of marijuana, including the possibility of hash oil explosions in residential areas. I learned about hash oil explosions during a recent family visit to Seattle, where "recreational" marijuana is legal. In fact, I saw four pot shops sporting green crosses - presumably to advertise pot's alleged medicinal properties - in the 10-mile stretch of highway between Snohomish and Woodinville in the Seattle suburbs. [continues 532 words]
With so much of Washington preoccupied with increasing federal power at the expense of our rights - think IRS, NSA, DEA, and on and on - it's cause for celebration when someone suggests decreasing government power to protect our rights. Now comes Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who seeks to end the racket known as asset forfeiture. The federal government and state and local authorities use asset forfeiture laws to seize the property of criminal suspects. Although the people who have their assets seized are presumed innocent until proved guilty, their property does not enjoy due process protections. If police and prosecutors merely suspect that your assets were obtained or used in the commission of a crime, they can take the property from you. And to get your property back, whether it's cash, a car, a cellphone or a house, defendants have the burden of proving the property was obtained and used lawfully. [continues 279 words]
Re "Lost Dowd in high weeds" (Notes from the Neon Babylon, July 10): Great column regarding marijuana edibles. Just as most people have to suffer the seriously unpleasant effects of alcohol poisoning before they truly understand how to use that well known drug, so do people need to learn how to dose themselves on edibles. As one who suffered an MJ overdose more than 40 years ago, I have been absolutely gun shy around pot munchies. One of the best things that should come out of legalization is an understanding of dosage, regulated content and potency of edibles. I can't wait. I would love to be able to eat just enough to relax me to sleep. Roll on, reefer sanity! Paul Blakey via email [end]
Re "Lost Dowd in high weeds" (Notes from the Neon Babylon, July 10): Let's remember that dumbass Dowd gobbled an entire edible that was clearly marked as a 16-dose edible. Hell, that kind of edible dose would would have given Rasta Bob Marley heart palpitations. I have been a California medical cannabis patient since 1998 and now, after recent heart surgery and a complication or two, I can not vaporize flowers ever again, and I depend entirely on edibles and tinctures for pain medication. [continues 166 words]
Newsrooms always get a lot of material on financial services-public offerings, merger announcements, that kind of thing. Those materials are getting more interesting these days. For instance, this came in on July 1, datelined from Mesquite in Clark County: "Cannabis Sativa, Inc. (OTCQB:CBDS) announced today that on June 30, 2014, it consummated the acquisition of Kush, a Nevada corporation ('Kush'), and its consolidated subsidiary, following which Kush became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (the 'Merger'); ... Kush is a development stage company engaged in the research, development and licensing of specialized natural cannabis products, including cannabis formulas, edibles, topicals, strains, recipes and delivery systems." [continues 164 words]
Regarding Erin Ryan's July 7 column, "A child of the '80s grapples with the failures of the =80'war on drugs,'" the drug war is largely a war on marijuana consumers. Marijuana is by far the most popular illicit drug. In 2012, there were 749,825 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. [continues 73 words]
Medical Marijuana Access Spotty As Local Jurisdictions, Entrepreneurs Show Little Interest CARSON CITY - Much of urban Nevada is quickly moving forward to license medical marijuana dispensaries, but patients in some rural areas might find it difficult to obtain the drug because local governments are opting out. Another barrier to getting the drug is the apparent lack of interest by entrepreneurs to operate in the sparsely populated areas. Nevada's rural counties reported little to no interest from applicants wishing to establish dispensaries, according to the Nevada Association of Counties. [continues 924 words]
Restaurant's Slot Operator Removed The Gaming Control Board told owners of a Las Vegas restaurant Thursday to find a new slot machine route operator for the business's games - one whose owner doesn't have ties to medical marijuana. The decision marks the first time gaming regulators have ruled on a licensing matter concerning a gaming business in light of the state's fledgling medical pot industry. In May, the Control Board in an industry notice admonished gaming license-holders and prospective license applicants to stay away from the medical marijuana business in light of continued federal enforcement of anti-drug laws. [continues 564 words]
On June 3, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd blew a lot of minds when she wrote about her experience in Colorado with one of the newly legal pot-laced candy bars now available there. What made it memorable was that Maureen got rocked hard by her stony treat. "I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. ... I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. ... I was thirsty but couldn't move to get water. ... I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me" and so on and so forth. [continues 460 words]
Nevada's implementation of the law requiring medical marijuana establishment (MME) licensing is so far plagued by hidden financing, proxy companies, questionable campaign contributions and forbidden crossovers between gambling licensees and dispensary ownership in Clark County. The problem is that the state has capped the number of dispensaries by county, has required enormous capital to apply, and the licenses are awarded by politicians. What could possibly go wrong? When the state artificially creates a market, rather than markets creating themselves, there will be corruption. When the number of legalized outlets is capped by government, and only government can approve new applications, the opportunity for start up competition is capped as well. Without competition, there will be a few entrenched special interests who will dominate the industry. Nevada promised transparency in the selection process, but so far the process has been opaque. [continues 466 words]
War has been declared on the "war on drugs." Not by violent cartels, but by economists, public health workers, human rights advocates and others who believe that punitive, blanket prohibition is not only failing but has done enormous harm. Thousands took to the streets of more than 100 cities across the globe June 26, "reclaiming" the United Nations' International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking by protesting the fallout of the drug war, from health crises to mass incarceration. [continues 780 words]
Americans Fund Cartels That Have Kids Fleeing Since Oct. 1, U.S. Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 52,000 children traveling alone from Central America and Mexico. Many of these kids made the dangerous trip to escape even more dangerous conditions in their home countries. According to a 2013 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees survey of 400 children who fled to the United States from Central America and Mexico, nearly half said drug cartel and gang violence had affected them personally, while 20 percent said they had been abused or otherwise experienced violence in their own homes. [continues 566 words]
Cannabis Convention Attracts Business-Minded Attendees Attendees at the International Cannabis Association's convention Sunday sought to apply their business experiences to an emerging market. Among those present at the two-day convention at the Hard Rock Hotel were a security expert, a New York ammunitions manufacturer, a self-described reverend of cannabis, a real estate investor and others - all eager to learn more about the emerging industry. The keynote speaker was New York state Sen. Diane Savino, a Democrat and a sponsor of a medical marijuana bill that passed in New York on Friday. New York would become the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana if Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs the bill. [continues 446 words]
Taking a slow but steady approach, the city of Las Vegas has a tentative plan to handle applications for medical marijuana establishments in its own fashion. Not the way Clark County did it. Not the way Henderson is doing it. Not the way North Las Vegas is expected to do it. "The tentative plan is to have special use permits before the Planning Commission with meetings in the month of September," Planning Director Flinn Fagg said Wednesday. "Then it would be forward to the City Council in October. It would be about the same time the state will be reviewing it." [continues 181 words]
Permits Granted to Production, Cultivation Firms Clark County commissioners on Tuesday approved 101 applications from medical marijuana developers seeking to open production, cultivation and laboratory facilities from Laughlin to Las Vegas. With unanimous votes, commissioners approved the vast majority, rejecting only five applications from a pool of 106. Commissioners started the day with 112 applications, but six were withdrawn. The seven-hour hearing capped the county's foray into approving medical marijuana applications for special use permits. They approved 58 permits for cultivation facilities, 38 for production facilities and five for laboratories for testing medical marijuana. [continues 436 words]
Henderson on Right Path, but Don't Over-Regulate Henderson is taking the high road in licensing medical marijuana dispensaries. Rather than pick favorites at the outset of the process, the city proposes to screen license applicants based on defined suitability criteria, then forward them to state regulators for evaluation. Under ordinances that will be considered by the City Council today, Henderson would not take the approach of Clark County, which invited a lobbying frenzy - and questions of integrity - by marching every applicant in front of the board and making its picks before state consideration. If the state doesn't license a dispensary, the application dies. [continues 218 words]
Columnist's Pot Candy Flipped Switch in Brain NEW YORK - Maureen Dowd, a 62-yearold Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times, had a bad marijuana trip earlier this year. As part of her research into the legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado, she ate a few too many bites of a pot-infused candy bar, entered a "hallucinatory state," and spent eight paranoid hours curled up on her hotel room bed. Dowd used the experience as a jumping-off point to discuss the risks of overdosing on edible marijuana, which has become a major issue in pot-friendly states. [continues 723 words]
Financial Institution Eager to Do Business With Would-Be Marijuana Dispensary If finance executives are worried about getting involved with medical marijuana clients, don't tell Las Vegas banker John Sullivan. First Security Bank of Nevada, led by CEO Sullivan, has signed on to manage cash and other banking transactions for would be dispensary operator GrowBlox Sciences. GrowBlox, which said it "operates with the utmost compliance integrity," said its arrangement with First Security would eliminate the "cash-only" status of medical marijuana shops that have left them vulnerable to devastating theft. [continues 246 words]
After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver - failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. Justin Hartfield is the California founder of Marijuana.com and Weedmaps.com (a sort of Yelp for pot), and an entrepreneur involved in some of the nation's top marijuana-technology companies. As The Wall Street Journal noted in a profile in March, the 30-year-old former high school pot dealer wants to be "the Philip Morris of pot." [continues 733 words]
Council Meeting Will Set Up Parameters for Businesses Henderson is getting ready to enter the medical marijuana fray a year after the state signed the industry into law. The city is scheduled to introduce a series of bills at the June 17 City Council meeting that would set the parameters for medical marijuana establishments including locations, fees, application process and general regulations. The new ordinances are scheduled for final approval at the July 1 council meeting. However, no time frame for accepting applications and beginning the approval process for licensing dispensaries has been established, according to city spokeswoman Karina Milani. [continues 316 words]
When Alecia Phonesavanh heard her 19-month-old son, Bounkham, screaming, she thought he was simply frightened by the armed men who had burst into the house in the middle of the night. Then she saw the charred remains of the portable playpen where the toddler had been sleeping, and she knew something horrible had happened. Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, who is in a medically induced coma at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, may never wake up. But the appalling injuries he suffered during a police raid in Habersham County, Ga., last month should awaken the country to the moral obscenity that is the war on drugs. [continues 569 words]
Winners Must Go Through State's Vetting Process Before Opening Shops They came from near and far. Las Vegas Valley developers, medical marijuana industry veterans from Colorado and area doctors were among them. The odds were against them. Seventy-nine applicants - down from 81 - aiming for part of the region's next industry: medical marijuana. And Clark County had just 18 slots for medical marijuana dispensaries. There were familiar names among the winners that county commissioners picked Friday at the end of a three-day hearing. Longtime developer and gaming executive Randy Black, who retired last year as chief operating officer at Mesquite Gaming, for example, hopes to open a dispensary in Laughlin. He was the only applicant there. [continues 691 words]
Operators Need Blend of Experience, Reputation Several months ago, medical marijuana was stuck in neutral in Southern Nevada. Today, it's full speed ahead for the licensing and opening of dispensaries in unincorporated Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Local elected officials appear to have finally conquered whatever irrational fears they might have had about legal, taxed sales of an otherwise prohibited drug - and they appear to have listened to most of the concerns of the public and the industry in regulating the production of the narcotic. [continues 603 words]
Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said he may consider applying to operate a medical marijuana dispensary. A rumor that he may apply for a dispensary license has been circulating in Reno. When asked, he didn't deny it. "I've not done any of that, at this point," he said. "My daughter has a daughter that's used [cannabis medication] a little bit, and she's working with some people and stuff like that. But if a business opportunity comes along, I might look at it." [continues 87 words]
When Voters Lay Down the Law, Some Officials Balk It was midday at Casale's Halfway Club on East Fourth Street. Though lunch is not always a big thing here, today there was a group of 10 people around a single table. Tom Case had bid in a silent auction on lunch for 10 with the mayors of Reno and Sparks at Casale's. He won, and this was the gathering. It was a fairly affluent group gathered around the table, so it was perhaps surprising that one of the first questions was about medical marijuana, directed at Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, who had recently endorsed its health care use. Seated under a poster for Birra Peroni lager, Cashell explained again the evolution of his thinking on the matter, which involves his hearing neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta explain the issue on CNN. [continues 1087 words]
Inside Nevada
