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.

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Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said he may consider applying to operate a medical marijuana dispensary. A rumor that he may apply for a dispensary license has been circulating in Reno. When asked, he didn't deny it.

"I've not done any of that, at this point," he said. "My daughter has a daughter that's used [cannabis medication] a little bit, and she's working with some people and stuff like that. But if a business opportunity comes along, I might look at it."

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When Voters Lay Down the Law, Some Officials Balk

It was midday at Casale's Halfway Club on East Fourth Street. Though lunch is not always a big thing here, today there was a group of 10 people around a single table. Tom Case had bid in a silent auction on lunch for 10 with the mayors of Reno and Sparks at Casale's. He won, and this was the gathering.

It was a fairly affluent group gathered around the table, so it was perhaps surprising that one of the first questions was about medical marijuana, directed at Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, who had recently endorsed its health care use. Seated under a poster for Birra Peroni lager, Cashell explained again the evolution of his thinking on the matter, which involves his hearing neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta explain the issue on CNN.

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Clark County commissioners will embark today on a three-day marathon of public hearings to winnow 81 applicants for medical marijuana dispensaries to 18 dispensaries.

The county's three-day process means that, at the earliest, commissioners will decide Friday afternoon on the 18 dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county that will be sent to the state for approval. A decision on the 18 could come after Friday as well.

Each of the 81 applicants has a public hearing, giving neighbors a chance to testify. But commissioners intend for the process to remain on a tight schedule.

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Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., has introduced legislation that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.

He said the proposal would turn the decision whether pot use and possession is legal over to the states.

"States that have voted to legalize marijuana for medical and/or recreational use should not fear federal agents raiding their businesses and intimidating their citizens," Horsford said.

He said the bill doesn't force states to legalize pot but would simply direct the Attorney General to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and put it under the federal Alcohol Administration Act.

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The medical marijuana dispensary license applicant swore he could smell something in the air inside Clark County government, and it wasn't pot smoke.

It was the malodor of politics.

Why, he recently asked after we agreed he'd remain anonymous, were applicants with connections to the state's gaming industry receiving special consideration? Couldn't they have easily anticipated the state Gaming Control Board would take issue with their relationship with a drug that's against federal law to sell? Shouldn't they have done their due diligence?

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Coalition's Website Pushes for Legalized Recreational Use in Nevada

A pro-marijuana group seeking to legalize the recreational use of the drug in Nevada is getting organized, creating a website where information about the effort, including how to volunteer, can be found.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in April filed its petition to send a recreational marijuana proposal to the 2015 Legislature. Its website is http://www.regulatemarijuanainnevada. org/.

The group also has a Facebook page. The initiative petition was filed by Joe Brezny, executive director of the Nevada Cannabis Industry Association.

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The Gardnerville and Minden town boards will weigh in with their feelings about having medical marijuana establishments in their communities this week.

On Friday, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health announced it will accept applications for medical marijuana establishments Aug. 5 - 18. The application form can be found on the department of health's Medical Marijuana Program web page at: http://health.nv.gov/medicalmarijuana.htm.

Douglas County has imposed a temporary ban on medical marijuana establishments while it collects information to produce an ordinance.

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Recreational Pot Petition Good Policy

Nevada voters have an opportunity to reset America's costly drug war. This week, petitioners began collecting signatures for an initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana within the state. If the petitioners collect 101,667 valid signatures from registered Nevada voters by Nov. 11, the measure would go before the 2015 Legislature for consideration. And if lawmakers ignore or reject it, the petition would appear on the November 2016 ballot.

We're guessing the petition, put forward by the Nevada Canabis Industry Association with help from the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, won't have a problem collecting signatures from less than 10 percent of Nevada's electorate. Polling consistently shows a majority of voters now support decriminalizing the drug. All the way back in 2006,when voters were far less open to the idea of legalizing the purchase, possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, 44 percent of Nevada voters backed a ballot question to do just that.

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Plants Could Yield Millions in Revenue With Minimal Water Use, Observers Say

Marijuana could become one of the biggest cash crops in Nevada when cultivation facilities open in the coming months, a UNLV soil and water scientist said.

"They're going to make a lot of money using very little amount of water," professor Dale Devitt said. "That's how you justify the use of water in the desert."

High-grade alfalfa grown on farms throughout Northern Nevada earns about $100 profit per acre-foot of water. Golf courses in Las Vegas make about $5,000 to $7,000 per acre-foot of water.

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If you want to know where the medicinal marijuana issue is going in Nevada, don't sweat the future location of the pot shop nearest you. Instead, just drop by Richard "Tick" Segerblom's downtown law office.

There you'll find him dressed casually and working several cases at once, none of which is related to the state's ongoing marijuana evolution. Although the issue has taken up much of his time for more than a decade, he is one of the few Southern Nevada insiders not in direct line to make a score once the dispensaries are up and running.

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In coming months, Clark County is expected to issue the first medical marijuana business licenses on four different levels: cultivation warehouses, production facilities, lab testing and dispensaries.

That covers each stage of getting pot from seed to sale.

At a hearing scheduled for June 5, which could spill over into the next day, county commissioners are expected to decide which of 109 companies that applied for licenses will be sent to the state Public and Behavioral Health Division for review.

State and county officials want to closely oversee newly legalized sales, and have set strict guidelines for companies that want to enter the pot business.

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Policy Targets Weed Fed by Colorado River

Budding local weed farmers can breathe easily. A new federal policy directive that could bar the delivery of Colorado River water to marijuana cultivators apparently does not apply to those in the Las Vegas Valley.

Though roughly 90 percent of the valley's water comes from the river by way of federally managed Lake Mead, officials from the Southern Nevada Water Authority believe their agency is exempt from a temporary policy statement unveiled this week by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

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Here's the latest word for Nevada gaming licensees who want to plunge into the state's new medical marijuana marketplace: The answer is still no.

The Nevada Gaming Commission voted Thursday to uphold the state Gaming Control Board's edict earlier this month that keeps anyone with a gaming license from investing in or owning a medical marijuana dispensary or growing the plant for use in the budding industry.

In a May 6 industry notice, the Control Board said license holders should stay away from state-sanctioned medical pot because the federal government still views distribution, possession and sale of the drug as a crime. The control board warned even potential gaming license applicants to stay away from the pot trade.

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The Clark County Commission signaled this week that it would ignore a recommendation by the state and continue with its medical marijuana application process unchanged.

Commissioners said during a meeting that they plan to choose operators for 18 dispensaries from a pool of 81 applicants when they review applications starting June 4.

That differs from a request from the state Monday afternoon that local governments forward "a large number of applicants" for state approval.

Under the two-step system imposed by the Legislature in 2013, medical marijuana applicants must receive a special-use permit from local governments and a license from the state.

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Ending a 13-hour meeting packed with controversy, the Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved a zoning ordinance laying out where medical marijuana establishments will be allowed.

Councilman Bob Coffin made a successful run Wednesday at setting the city's stricter proposed standards to align with the state's standards.

The council will allow dispensaries in commercial and industrial districts. The council removed the requirement that dispensaries be in fully detached, standalong structures, which some speakers called too restrictive.

The council also voted to allow dispensaries on Las Vegas Boulevard and on Fremont Street, east of Eighth Street. Clark County rejected the idea of dispensaries on Las Vegas Boulevard and Coffin said if the city allowed it, it would provide a competitive advantage.

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Julie Hornsby lives in constant pain. She suffers from peripheral neuropathy, a painful condition that attacks the body's nervous system. She also has degenerative disk disease in her lower back, painful enough on its own.

There's no cure for it, so Hornsby's life centers on managing her pain with strong narcotics, including morphine and Percocet.

"I'm 49 years old, unable to work," Hornsby said. "I quit (working) full time in 2008 and have been on disability for almost four years now. I don't work outside of the home. I can't. I can't get out of bed."

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Citizenry's Ire From Killing of Pets Could Help Stifle Collateral Damage in Violent Raids

If Radley Balko is right, it may be the dog lovers of America who touched off a movement to rein in the strong-arm tactics that have accompanied the militarization of the country's police forces.

Balko, who writes The Washington Post's "The Watch" blog on criminal justice issues, says that police these days too frequently shoot people's pets when making a raid, and people are becoming fed up.

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It's called Charlotte's Web and it is a strain of marijuana that won't get you stoned.

Yet this particular strain of pot is considered a wonder drug by parents and doctors who use it to treat children with epilepsy and other seizure-causing conditions.

For children like 8-year-old Samuel Brady of Carson City, getting access to the Charlotte's Web tincture and oil that is processed from the marijuana plant will be a matter of life and death.

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To the editor:

In recent months, local and national news outlets have reported that marijuana can damage people's brains, and can also cause heart damage. So where does the American Medical Association stand on the use of recreational marijuana?

Just because Colorado passed laws to permit medical and recreational marijuana does not mean that Nevada needs to do likewise in order to get tax money. I can think of various things to do or laws to pass to get tax money without legalizing recreational marijuana.

LAS VEGAS

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