Brennan Linsley / AP
In this May 8, 2014, photo, a customer pays cash for retail marijuana at 3D Cannabis Center in Denver.
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015 | 1:25 p.m.
Alcohol wholesalers play a crucial role in providing the Las Vegas economy with an important lubricant — and they have the political clout to match.
Now, many of those same companies are angling for a piece of what could be Nevada’s next big vice — recreational marijuana.
The 2016 ballot will feature a measure that would fully legalize marijuana. If passed, Nevada would join Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon in allowing recreational pot.
In Nevada, liquor distributors have given a combined $87,500 to a campaign to pass the measure, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
And though it may seem counterintuitive for liquor distributors to be spending to legalize a competing product, they have a good reason. If approved, the ballot measure would give alcohol distributors the exclusive right to distribute marijuana for the first 18 months of the industry’s existence.
Nationwide, distributors gave $14.6 million in 2014 to state candidates, parties and ballot issues.
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