Nevada’s recreational marijuana legalization went into effect July 1 with expectations of $60 million in new tax revenue. Long, long lines greeted the first customers, but a little over a week into the effort, there’s such a shortage of marijuana for dispensaries to sell that the governor has declared a state of emergency.
Governor Brian Sandoval signed a measure that widens the pool of applicants distribution licenses, permitting the transportation of marijuana from harvesting and packaging facilities to the dispensaries. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, “The taxation department has issued not one distribution license because of a last-minute court battle, incomplete applications and zoning issues, meaning dispensaries will not be getting a delivery for a while.” The state’s tax commission is set to vote on Sandoval’s new measure this week.
After Nevada legalized recreational marijuana, the state gave exclusive distribution rights to liquor wholesalers, seven of which have applied for licenses. However, none of the seven have been approved yet.
“We continue to work with the liquor wholesalers who have applied for distribution licenses, but most don’t yet meet the requirements that would allow us to license them. Even as we attempted to schedule the final facility inspection for one of the applicants this week, they told us their facility was not ready and declined the inspection,” tax department spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein said.
So, since the state said that dispensaries have to receive product from licensed distributors but has not issued any licenses yet, they are hoping this new regulation will pass and get new distribution licenses out there. The state faces problems with growing cycles and crop shortages making things difficult for the distributors, too, but that’s a story for another time.
(via Reno Gazette-Journal)