Clark County OKs ordinances to enable recreational weed biz

By April Corbin

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Clark County is on track to introduce recreational marijuana sales next month.

County commissioners on Tuesday passed two ordinances related to the business licensing and zoning for the recreational marijuana industry. The ordinances allow existing medical marijuana establishments to apply to expand their operations to include recreational marijuana. The ordinances also include regulations that keep the two legs of the industry distinct, even while they exist in the same space.

The regulations largely line up with the recommendations of the Green Ribbon Advisory Panel, which the county formed earlier this year to flesh out specifics. The panel includes industry representatives, as well as people from the resort industry.

“We attempted to provide provisions to protect (medical marijuana) patients,” said Jacqueline Holloway, the director of business licensing for the county. “If we find they do not provide appropriate access for medical patients, we can have criminal or civil penalties.”

One such provision says that retail establishments must accommodate a customer’s request for a confidential and private consultation and that it must be held in a partitioned-off space of at least 25 square feet.

Commissioner Mary Beth Scow pushed for the consultation space regulation to require a dedicated room and not just an undefined area. However, that idea received pushback from numerous industry representatives, who argued that because no such space requirement was made when the medical marijuana ordinance passed, some existing dispensaries would not have the necessary space.

Scott Sibley, the managing partner of Nevada Holistic Medicine and a member of the Green Ribbon Advisory Panel, likened it to common pharmacies.

“If you look at CVS, they don’t have a separate room.”

Several commissioners expressed concerns about protecting the experience of medical marijuana patients and worried that existing businesses would abandon the medical side when recreational sales inevitably take off. They worried that medical patients would have to wait in long lines behind guys just there to get high on a weekend bachelor party.

It’s an unfounded fear, said two industry representatives. While the introduction of recreational marijuana sales has led to a decrease in the number of medical marijuana card holders in other states that have introduced it, there hasn’t been a widespread abandonment of serving patients, they said.

“What’s the upside in that for us?” asked Integral Associates CEO Armen Yemenidjian.

John Ritter of the Nevada Dispensary Association, who sits on the state’s recreational marijuana task force, added that his dispensaries plan on letting medical marijuana cardholders move in front of recreational customers when checking in.

Nevada Dispensary Association President Andrew Jolley also noted that recreational sales might still be tied to medicinal uses.

“Many people are reluctant to get their medical card for a variety of reasons,” he said. “I think a lot of people will come in (for recreational marijuana) and use it medically.”

He used the example of a veteran who might be worried about how having a medical marijuana card might affect his or her primary health benefits, or anyone uneasy with the idea of being on a registry.

As the medical marijuana laws currently stand, cardholders are required to present their cards at check-in to a dispensary and their name is put into a database. Recreational marijuana customers will only have to present a valid form of identification proving they are at least 21 years old. Stores are prohibited by state law from logging that information.

The passing of the ordinances on Tuesday means that existing medical marijuana establishments could go before the county commissioners as soon as June 21 to seek their special-use permits and licenses.