Nevada pot retailers ‘running on fumes’ amid booming sales

RENO, Nev. — Most of Nevada’s recreational marijuana retailers are optimistic an emergency regulation that state officials are expected to approve will help keep them from running out of pot supplies, but some are “running on fumes,” an industry official said Tuesday.

The State Tax Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on an emergency measure Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed late last week in an effort to allow the state to issue pot distribution licenses currently banned by a court order.

Nevada Tax Department spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein said some of the 47 licensed retailers have reported twice as much business as they anticipated since recreational sales began July 1, and many fear their shelves soon will be empty.

Nevada Dispensary Association President Andrew Jolley said Tuesday most stores are “still doing OK in terms of supply.”

“But there are some that are obviously concerned given that we are 10 days into retail sales without being resupplied,” Jolley said. “I have heard of some dispensaries running on fumes, if you will.”

A legal battle over distribution of pot for recreational use threatens to jeopardize the flow of supplies from growers and manufacturers to retailers in the coming weeks.

The ballot measure voters approved in November legalizing the sales dictates that licensed alcohol wholesalers have the exclusive rights to pot distribution licenses for 18 months. But no alcohol wholesalers have completed the licensing process.

Before recreational sales began July 1, most dispensaries selling medical marijuana were authorized to serve as their own middleman, and the bulk of them started stockpiling supplies months ago in an anticipation of high demand.

“Everybody that I know tried to augment their inventory as much as possible in the days and weeks leading up to July 1, but I’m not sure to what extent they were able to do that,” Jolley said Tuesday.