In 1998, Nevada voters approved the Nevada Medical Marijuana Act. In 2000, the initiative was passed again. It amended the state constitution to allow legal access to medical marijuana. In June 2001, Nevada Assembly Bill 453 officially legalized medical marijuana. The state’s cannabis industry is in constant flux since then and continues to grow.
In 2002 and 2006, Nevada’s attempts to legalize adult cannabis use failed. In 2012, Colorado legalized adult cannabis use.
After years of rulemaking, Silver State Relief, Sparks was the first state to open a medical cannabis dispensary. It opened on July 31, 2015.
Nevada voters approved the Initiative to Regulate and Tax Marijuana in 2016. Anyone over 21 years old can legally possess and use cannabis. If they live more than 25 miles away from a dispensary, an adult can plant up to six plants.
Nearly 350 cannabis business licenses for adult and medical use have been issued since 2015. The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and Nevada Department of Taxation supervised the adult and medical use systems up to 2020, when regulation of cannabis was transferred over to the Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB).
Nevada legislators took two additional major steps to regulate cannabis during the last legislative session. Many people who had used cannabis products within the last 48 hours and drove a motor car within that time were more likely to have exceeded the per se blood limit for Tetracanabidiol, the psychoactive component of cannabis. AB400 was not signed into law. A DUI for cannabis is now based on the evidence of impairment, not the amount THC present in the blood.
AB341 passed in the last session. This lays the foundation for the CCB, stakeholders, to issue licenses for cannabis consumption venues and create regulations.
The Chamber of Cannabis, a non-profit organization, is based in Las Vegas. It works to create a more inclusive and successful industry. This organization played a key role in the passage of AB341, which contains groundbreaking social equity provisions that will better assist women and communities impacted directly by the War on Drugs.
We spoke on the same telephone call with Tina Ulman, Dani Baranowski and to learn more about Nevada’s future cannabis industry.
Tina Ulman, co-founder and president of The Chamber of Cannabis, is also the director of Brands for the Source dispensary.
Dani Baranowski, co-founder and vice-president of the Chamber of Cannabis, is Dani Baranowski. She is also brand manager at City Trees, Nevada’s vertically integrated cannabis company.
