IllustratIon by PrIscIlla GarcIa
by Brad Bynum br a d b@news r ev i ew. c om
J
ust two days before Christmas, early on a Monday morning, dozens of people showed up to video-linked meeting rooms in Carson City and Las Vegas to talk about marijuana. The scene was rather different than the typical marijuana party depicted in movies or TV. The discussions centered on bureaucracy, regulation and taxation, rather than psychedelic music, snowboarding or nachos.
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Discussions that focus on business concerns make sense, since marijuana will soon be a legal business in Nevada, within certain parameters. In 2000, Nevada voters approved the medical use of marijuana. But patients were only allowed to possess a few plants, and the law did not establish legal “dispensaries,” places to purchase medical marijuana. Patients were placed in the unusual position of having to cultivate their own medicine—something that would be inconceivable to the users of other medications, like insulin or penicillin. Finally, last year, after the Nevada Legislature passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Tick Segerblom, the law was amended to accommodate up to 66 legal dispensaries, distributed among the state’s counties based on population, with the bulk allocated to the population centers in Clark and Washoe counties.
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The meeting on Dec. 23 was a public workshop hosted by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, the agency responsible for establishing the program, to hear public comment and suggestions about the proposed regulations of the new industry. Potential business applicants hoping to open dispensaries—or, more accurately in many cases, the lawyers and lobbyists representing the applicants—commented on regulatory minutia. Some commentators seemed perturbed by the perceived foot-dragging on the part of state and especially local officials in implementing the new medical marijuana program.
NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
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JANUARY 23, 2014
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