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Las Vegas Approves Medical Marijuana Rules

Licensing regulations for medical marijuana establishments were determined Wednesday by the Las Vegas City Council.

Licensing regulations for medical marijuana establishments were determined Wednesday by the Las Vegas City Council.

 

Most of the licensing ordinance had been tweaked already and approved by most of the council, but there were eight issues still hanging, and it took the council five hours to decide them.

 

Among the decisions:

 

■ Hours of dispensary sales will be 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. as the county allows. The council turned down allowing some dispensaries to remain open for 24 hours with a special use permit.

 

■ Strict restrictions limiting advertising were eliminated from the ordinance, and instead the advertising plan will be approved by the business license director with the understanding advertising will not be aimed at minors. The state must approve any advertising plan.

 

■ If a shortage of medical marijuana products exists in Clark County, the products can be obtained anywhere within Nevada. The original language said the products must be produced in the county.

 

■ Home delivery to Nevadans with medical marijuana cards will be allowed. Delivery to card holders staying at hotels will not be allowed. Originally, no deliveries would have been permitted.

 

■ Medical marijuana licenses will be reviewed by the council every two years.

 

■ The idea of funding research grants for drug resistance education and research was dropped, but a portion of the business license fee was increased 1 percentage point. A gross revenue fee of 4 percent from cultivation will increase to 5 percent and a 6 percent fee for cultivation, production and dispensary will increase to 7 percent.

 

■ Negative language about medical marijuana use was left in the preamble.

 

■ A required $500,000 surety bond was cut to $250,000.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.