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]
Inside Nevada
