Pubdate: Tue, 15 Oct 2013
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Copyright: 2013 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact:  http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/234
Authors: Andrew Doughman, Conor Shine

MEDICAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY MAY BE NEVADA'S NEW JACKPOT

They've got a lot of money and a big plan to peddle marijuana 
throughout Clark County, but they're not a drug cartel pushing pot on 
the streets.

They're high-profile lawyers, consultants and investors, and their 
clientele appears to be mostly middle-aged patients suffering from severe pain.

Nevada's Legislature legalized medical marijuana dispensaries earlier 
this year, and now monied interests are lining up to cash in on the 
blossoming bud business.

"We're 'Star Trek' right now; we're going where nobody has gone 
before," Vicki Higgins, secretary of the Wellness Education Cannabis 
Advocates of Nevada, said about the new law.

The law makes the drug legal for medical consumption, and the state 
will be granting a limited number of dispensary licenses next year, 
prompting a crush of interest that has already made medical marijuana 
a multimillion-dollar industry in Nevada.

Like Nevada's Wide Open Gambling Bill that legalized gambling in 
Nevada in 1931, investors see this as a Sky-High Marijuana Bill that 
could earn them lots of money.

"It exceeds our wildest dreams," said Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las 
Vegas, a sponsor of the medical marijuana dispensary bill. "When we 
wrote this law, we said we wanted to make it attractive commercially 
so that people with money and resources will come here and fight for 
these licenses. They're coming here in droves."

Similar to restricted gaming licenses, these pot prospectors first 
need to obtain one of 40 licenses to grow, test and sell marijuana in 
Clark County.

Applications for licenses are due in April, and many of the valley's 
big-money lawyers are requesting fees of up to $100,000 to prepare a 
medical marijuana establishment application, according to lawyers, 
investors and medical marijuana patients.

"People are kind of shopping for consultants," said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, 
a Las Vegas consultant. "A guy (called and) said, 'I got your number 
and we have half a million dollars, and we're looking to get an application.'"

Sen. Mark Hutchison, R-Las Vegas, this year promised other 
legislators there would be no smoke-filled rooms, no potheads 
lighting up joints on the patios of dispensaries if they voted for 
the dispensary bill.

"This will not be the Dr. Feelgood hanging out in a Jerry Garcia 
smoking lounge with a giant pot flag hanging outside the door," he 
told legislators in June. So far, he's on track to be right. Just 
look at who's trying to make a buck in the Nevada marijuana industry:

Joe Brezny, a former Nevada state director for 2012 Republican 
presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is running the Nevada Cannabis 
Industry Association.

Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, is getting paid to help 
prepare a medical marijuana license application.

The MMJ PAC, a medical marijuana political action committee, has 
formed in Nevada. It purports to support candidates who support the 
medical marijuana industry.

Many of the Las Vegas Valley's major law firms also either have 
medical marijuana clients or are hoping to gain them.

"People in our shoes try to take on clients who are businessmen, 
above board," said Sean Higgins, a gaming lobbyist with the Gordon 
Silver law firm in Las Vegas who has a client hoping to apply for a 
license. "Our reputation is on the line as well as theirs."

Derek Connor, an attorney at Connor & Connor in Las Vegas, said his 
firm used to be split between personal injury and criminal 
litigation. Now he said he spends three-quarters of his time with 
medical marijuana clients.

"It's taken over a huge area of my practice," he said. "We've seen 
people who are well-established, well-connected Nevada families down 
to housewives interested in this as a way to make money."

Nevada is just one of several states making medical marijuana accessible.

But Nevada's new law comes more than a decade after Nevada voters 
amended the state constitution to allow for access to medicinal marijuana.

It wasn't until this year that the Legislature passed a law that 
allows a system for people to get their medicine in a convenient, 
regulated and legal fashion.

Before this new law, patients could have marijuana but couldn't get 
seeds. They could grow their own plants but couldn't buy the product, 
meaning sick people had to learn some botany to legally get their medicine.

The new dispensary law replaces that murky legal milieu.

By design, it's not going to be easy to open a medical marijuana 
establishment in Nevada. Somebody who wants to open a kitchen for 
cooking edible marijuana products or start a pharmacy-like dispensary 
needs to have at least $250,000 in liquid assets - something like 
cash, not a fixed asset like a house - and must pay additional 
licensing, background check and application fees.

The law also smiles upon applicants with business experience, medical 
marijuana expertise, an existing location in a commercial or 
industrial zone, a record of paying taxes in Nevada, and an 
"integrated plan for care, quality and safekeeping of medical 
marijuana from seed to sale."

The monied pot peddler eager to dive through all these hoops will 
greet a relatively small Nevada market.

Right now, about 4,500 Nevadans have obtained medical marijuana cards 
through the state's health division.

The Nevada bud boom isn't a guarantee. Marijuana remains illegal 
under federal law. So federal government workers could raid and close 
dispensaries at any time, wiping out millions of dollars in investments.

But the marijuana landscape has changed in recent months with a U.S. 
Department of Justice memo that has emboldened investors and 
marijuana advocates.

"The federal government had been demonstrating and recently made it 
abundantly clear that it will respect state marijuana laws when 
marijuana is being properly regulated," said Mason Tvert, director of 
communications at the Marijuana Policy Project.

The Nevada law has strict guidelines for electronic verification of 
cardholders, inventory-tracking, quality control, security and 
licensure. It also mandates a 2 percent sales tax on medical 
marijuana designed to offset the state's cost for administering and 
enforcing these regulations.

Even with the state constitutional provision mandating access to 
medical marijuana, local governments are still debating what kind of 
zoning restrictions they'll place on dispensaries, grow houses, 
edibles kitchens and other medical marijuana establishments.

"The first decision will be: Do we want these types of businesses in 
the city of Las Vegas?" said Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony, 
who was a former vice narcotics captain with Metro Police. "If we do, 
where are they going to be located, how are they going to be handed out?"

State regulators also have a chance to develop stricter rules.

While most lobbyists, consultants and patients say the state has been 
open and responsive as it begins crafting state regulations, some are 
concerned that the industry could face so many regulations that 
investors might ultimately determine that they cannot make a profit here.

"A lot of people see this as a cash cow," said Peter Krueger, 
president of the newly formed Nevada Medical Marijuana Association. 
"I'm not so sure if it's a cash cow when government gets through with it."

Meanwhile, without regulations and zoning rules in place, nobody 
wants to talk about who's actually applying.

Patients, lawyers, policy advocates, trade associations and 
consultants speak vaguely of "California investors" or "very high 
names in the city."

"That's kind of a confidential thing at this point," Higgins said. 
"Many people are looking into this with an eye toward opening, but 
unfortunately, without the regulations being specific, many of the 
individuals and groups considering this are just waiting."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom