Pubdate: Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2015 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
Author: Eric Hartley

DISPENSARIES, GROWERS STILL ON HOLD

Businesses Waiting for State Committee to Develop Rules for Pesticides

Nevada's first legal marijuana dispensaries can't open yet because a 
state advisory committee hasn't figured out what pesticides growers 
will be allowed to use on plants.

That leaves it uncertain when the first of 8,575 cardholders - close 
to 6,200 of them in Clark County - will be able to buy medical pot in a shop.

"All I know is I'm done. I'm ready. I can move quickly," said Joe 
Lamarca, co-owner of Euphoria Wellness, a dispensary southwest of 
McCarran International Airport. "I just need to get others on the same page."

The earliest the advisory committee is expected to issue a 
recommended pesticide list is at its next meeting March 4.

Regardless of when the rules are in place, the amount of marijuana 
for sale likely will be limited at first. No cultivation facilities 
have planted crops or even asked the state for final permission to 
open. Indeed, they can't, since they don't know what pesticides they 
will be allowed to use.

That means dispensaries initially will rely on marijuana grown by 
people who already have caregiver or patient cards, Lamarca said.

And the state-approved labs that will have to test plants before any 
marijuana can be sold aren't open yet, either. Like the cultivators, 
they're waiting for the rules to be finished.

State health regulations established the seven-member Independent 
Laboratory Advisory Committee to recommend how marijuana should be 
grown and tested, including what pesticides can be used. Committee 
members, who come from the lab and marijuana industries, were 
appointed by Richard Whitley, administrator of the state Division of 
Public and Behavioral Health.

The committee met for the first time Jan. 29 and will meet again 
March 4. Members said they hoped to decide on the pesticide list as 
soon as possible.

"There are a lot of people who are sick in Las Vegas who need this 
medicine," said Savino Sguera, a member of the committee. He also is 
director of DB Labs.

Jason Sturtsman, another committee member, said members have been 
talking by email so they can make decisions at the March public meeting.

"Until we finish our work, the labs can't open," said Sturtsman, a 
patient advocate who is also an owner of a North Las Vegas marijuana 
cultivation business. "If the labs can't open, people can't start 
getting to work."

The uncertainty is frustrating for people in the fledgling industry, 
many of whom have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their 
businesses.

Euphoria Wellness' shop on Jones Boulevard south of the 215 Beltway 
has been built, down to the bullet-resistant glass. The owners, who 
have long sought to be the first dispensary in Nevada, are 
advertising online and putting up billboards. But for now, all they 
can tell prospective customers is that the shop will be open "soon."

Lamarca said he and his partners have been working to get the 
business ready for about two years. And he wishes the state had been 
doing the same so they could open as soon as possible.

"Everything takes time," said state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, 
who sponsored a bill to allow medical marijuana dispensaries. "It 
drives you crazy."

But, he added, "The reality is our staff is so limited that they just 
have to focus on one issue at a time."

The state could set the pesticide rules without the advisory 
committee's recommendation but don't plan to. In a statement, state 
health officials said "the ILAC is an important advisory body with 
advanced technical expertise beyond that which currently exists in 
the Division."

The state is finishing other regulations. It issued new rules this 
week for the amount of certain heavy metals that will be allowed in 
marijuana plants. A clerical error in an earlier regulation had set 
impossibly low limits.

Pam Graber, a spokeswoman for the state's Medical Marijuana Program, 
said officials are working to get businesses open as fast as possible.

"There are a lot of moving parts here," she said, adding, "We're here 
. creating a program out of nothing."

State officials have asked owners to notify them about two weeks 
before planned openings. As of this week, Graber said, they hadn't 
gotten any calls. It's possible dispensaries could open in March, she said.

After final inspections, the state will collect a fee for an official 
license, which Lamarca said is expected to be $35,000.

"They are great to work with," Lamarca said of the state officials he 
and his partners have met. "They're just not used to this. It's not 
in their world to do things in a hurry. They're not running a 
business - they're running a regulatory agency."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom