By Monterey Bud
If all goes smoothly within the Nevada Tax Commission, residents and tourists alike could be privately celebrating this 4th of July with legal weed in Sin City. High on their list of important topics for discussion at the initial meeting of 2017, Deonne Contine, the Executive Director of the state Tax Commission, addressed the idea of getting an “early start,” according to MPM’s Brian Bahouth.
“We hope to, sometime between May and June begin accepting licenses from only operating MMEs (Medical Marijuana Establishments) who are operational and in good standing with the health division and have the proper zoning from their local government, and then issue the licenses for July 1st.”
Currently legal for adults to use and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana – yet unavailable to the public at dispensaries – the Executive Director of Nevada’s Department of Taxation, Deonne Contine, noted some provisional regulations drafted to accommodate the early implementation of Question 2.
Anxious to fire up Nevada’s legal marijuana sales, Director Contine authorized a workshop for the creation of temporary rules and regulations. If successful at establishing some new temporary guidelines for operations, Nevada regulators could begin issuing their licenses before July 4, 2017, with those temporary regulations expiring in November or “whenever permanent regulations are written and adopted.”
Contine explained:
“It’s not necessarily about reinventing the wheel, it’s looking at our medical program, looking at other programs throughout the state. What are the issues that we see in our medical program that we need to either fix or address in a regulatory program. What have other states done and what issues have they seen as they’ve gone to legalization.”
With Dec. 31, 2017, as their projected deadline for creating permanent rules and regulations for Nevada’s recently legalized marijuana industry, the state legislature will begin addressing several bills that, if passed, will define and shape Question 2’s implementation – including the early cultivation of their state program.
