Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jun 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
Page: 8B

POT DISPENSARIES

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.

However, as the Clark County Commission wraps up three days of 
dispensary applicant presentations, which will conclude today with 
the advancement of 18 from a field of about 80 for consideration by 
the state, elected officials must be able to look past the influence 
of politically connected candidates and instead judge applications by 
their expertise in lawfully getting marijuana to the sick.

The formation of this industry in Nevada, enabled last year by a 
state law that came more than a decade after voters authorized the 
use of prescription marijuana, has triggered a lobbying frenzy and 
big business for law firms. Local insiders clearly see dispensaries 
as can't-miss cash cows that, perhaps as soon as 2017, could be 
allowed to sell marijuana for legal recreational use as well.

In picking winners from the crush of applications, commissioners and 
council members must strike a balance. They want to award licenses to 
groups that have principals with good reputations to prevent the 
possibility of dispensaries engaging in illegal drug sales. They want 
to avoid licensing outsiders who might have run afoul of the law in 
other states. And they want dispensaries to open in locations that 
make the drug accessible without triggering neighborhood outrage. But 
each application clearly needs someone who has experience running a 
dispensary under tight local and state regulation, and under the 
constant threat of intervention by the federal government, which 
still considers medical marijuana illegal.

All the political juice in the world won't make a marijuana plant 
grow, and it won't turn that plant into a product that relieves 
everything from chronic pain to extreme nausea to debilitating 
seizures. Whatever shameless political considerations play a part in 
the awarding of licenses, the goal of local governments - which 
clearly are hoping for a sales tax and licensing fee windfall - must 
be the delivery of a good product to the local market.

Las Vegas and North Las Vegas are catching up to Clark County after 
moving slowly through the spring. On Wednesday, North Las Vegas 
introduced its medical marijuana ordinance for council approval June 
18, copying some language from its neighbors and moving toward a 
system under which applicants can be approved within weeks of state 
certification. Also on Wednesday, the Las Vegas City Council gave 
final approval to its medical marijuana licensing regulations.

In doing so, as reported by the Review-Journal's Jane Ann Morrison, 
the council wisely dialed back a number of onerous restrictions that 
would have harmed patient access to the drug or potentially triggered 
a constitutional challenge to the ordinance. Strict advertising 
restrictions that would have prohibited handbilling - which is 
lawfully used by far less savory businesses - were removed. And a ban 
on all deliveries was scaled back to allow home deliveries while 
prohibiting hotel deliveries. Some patients who need a marijuana 
prescription filled are simply too sick to go to a dispensary. Kudos 
to the council for showing some common sense and compassion.

The next big question is whether licensed dispensaries will be able 
to sell enough product to generate significant sales tax receipts. 
With licensing and regulatory costs that will run into the hundreds 
of thousands of dollars, legal medical marijuana won't be cheap. 
Overpriced drugs will drive patients to street dealers and support 
criminal enterprises instead of taxpaying businesses. Local 
governments must be flexible enough to revisit their fees and 
regulations if the costs prove too high.

The rush of investors seeking to open one of the 40 Southern Nevada 
dispensaries allowed under state law bodes well. These enterprises 
will create a lot of jobs. Onward.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom