As work on rules starts, interest wanes among some

Friday is the beginning of a roughly three-month process for a group to develop recommendations for how the state should regulate recreational marijuana.

The Marijuana Task Force, created by executive order, will work out details ranging from how to tax marijuana to how to label marijuana products. Though there is a long list of topics that will need lengthy discussion, one thing is clear: Alcohol distributors will not control marijuana distribution.

“The way it’s written in the initiative is that for the first 18 months after we start accepting applications, (alcohol) wholesalers will have first dibs on distribution licenses,” Department of Taxation spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein said.

But, sources say the majority of alcohol wholesalers aren’t interested in having first dibs — or any at all, mainly because of the risk it poses to their federal business licenses.

“As a national leader in the beverage alcohol distribution industry and a responsible state and federally licensed business, Southern Glazer’s is committed and bound to comply with the rules and regulations that govern our business,” said Cynthia Haas, a spokeswoman for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, the largest North American wine and spirits distribution company.

Brandi Atwater, store manager for Lee’s Discount Liquor on Sunset Road, said she doesn’t see the company applying for a license to distribute marijuana. The MArijuAnA TAsk Force, creAted by executive order, will work out detAils rAnging from how to tAx mArijuAnA to how to lAbel mArijuAnA products. Though there is A long list of topics thAt will need lengthy discussion, one thing is cleAr: Alcohol distributors will not control mArijuAnA distribution.

“I don’t think it is a good way to go,” she said.

Other alcohol distribution companies, including Morrey Distributing and Bonanza Beverage Co., declined to comment. GETTING PUSHBACK

Matt Griffin, an attorney who helped to draft the initiative, said he got pushback for the “first-dibs

LAS VEGAS REVIEV-JOURNAL clause,” which many, like Executive Director of the Nevada Wine Coalition Randi Thompson, saw as giving more power to alcohol distributors.

“These are the guys who are distributing alcohol, and now they are supposed to be the only ones who can now distribute marijuana,” Thompson said. “It’s giving a small group of MARIJUANA,