Nevada state senator to push dispensary bill amid confusing medical marijuana law

A Nevada state senator announced that he would push legislation to create a system to regulate for-profit medical marijuana dispensaries, reported the Las Vegas Sun.

His announcement came after a hearing on medical marijuana during which legislators from both parties agreed that changes to the law needed to be made, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom said his bill to regulate dispensaries would use Colorado's law as a model.

A state constitutional amendment was passed by voters in 2000 in favor of medical marijuana. The amendment called for the legislature to create an infrastructure for patients to obtain marijuana, but the resulting law included no system under which dispensaries could open.

The law, passed in 2001, allows permit holders only to grow their own marijuana. But at a state Senate Judiciary committee hearing, many said that getting the seeds themselves was illegal. Growing marijuana in Las Vegas poses another problem.

People with medical marijuana licenses in Nevada are stuck in a legal grey area, and many are confused as to whether they have purchased marijuana illegally.

In 2012, a district judge found the current law unconstitutional because it did not meet the mandate's requirements. The case has been appealed to the state Supreme Court, according to the Review-Journal.

[Image: Medical marijuana via Shutterstock]