Judge mulling Nevada bid for recreational pot sales
CARSON CITY: Nevada’s marijuana regulators are working furiously to launch recreational sales on July 1, a fast-approaching deadline that could hinge on a judge expected to decide Tuesday whether the liquor industry should be guaranteed a piece of the pot pie before tourists and residents can light up. Lawyers for the liquor industry and the Nevada Department of Taxation are arguing whether the state has the authority to issue marijuana distribution licenses to anyone besides alcohol distributors.
Carson City District Judge James Wilson said he had hoped to issue a decision following a daylong hearing on Monday. The state says it has the power to temporarily license some existing medical marijuana cultivators and retailers to serve as their own middlemen. It wants to get a head-start on collecting millions of dollars in tax revenue devoted to education before permanent rules are required by Jan. 1, 2018.
The liquor lobby sued, saying the state has failed to give it the first shot at distribution licenses as called for in the ballot measure approved by voters in November, the only legal pot state with that arrangement. Wilson has blocked all licensing until the matter is resolved. He refused the state’s request last week to dismiss the lawsuit, a move that could jeopardize the July 1 startup. It has been legal for adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in Nevada and consume it in private residences since the beginning of this year, but currently only medical dispensaries can sell it.
Further delay is “not going to stop the sale or use of (recreational) marijuana in Nevada,” Chief Deputy Attorney General William McKean said Monday. “As I walk down the street, there are a lot of people who are using it right now and they’re being supplied by the black market. The difference is the state is not going to get the taxes,” he said. Kevin Benson, a lawyer for the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada who filed the lawsuit, said keeping the temporary injunction in place won’t necessary scuttle the July 1 recreational sales —