Segerblom bill aims to loosen Nevada’s medical marijuana rules

A bill that calls for several changes to how Nevada treats marijuana hit the Senate floor during Monday’s bill frenzy in the Legislature.

Senate Bill 329, introduced by Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, would loosen some medical marijuana regulations, an idea Gov. Brian Sandoval has stated his opposition to.

SB 329 proposes a plethora of changes to how the state deals with marijuana.

It would allow veterans to obtain a medical marijuana card, add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of conditions that qualify for those cards and even make it so cards do not need to be renewed. Medical cards now last 12 months in Nevada.

The vast majority of cardholders in Nevada can only grow medical marijuana if they live more than 25 miles from a dispensary. The bill would lift that halo, and allow all cardholders to grow, cultivate and produce marijuana products.

But the bill could face resistance — even if it passes both the Senate and Assembly.

At the first meeting of the state’s marijuana task force, Sandoval’s legal counsel, Dan Stewart, said the governor is “not interested in action that would water down our current medicinal marijuana laws and regulations.”

If the bill made it Sandoval’s desk and he chose to veto it, a two-thirds vote in both houses would be needed for an override.

SB 329 also calls for several other changes, including:

• setting the foundation for state universities to begin researching the effects of marijuana.
• transferring the state’s medical marijuana program from it’s housing under the Division of Public and Behavioral Health to the Department of Taxation, which is also tasked with creating and enforcing regulations for recreational marijuana.
• authorizing “nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries,” which would be able accept donated marijuana which it could sell for a reduced price to patients based on financial need.
• requiring medical marijuana businesses to install security cameras which police can access in real time.
• allowing for the cultivation and production of hemp in Nevada.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on twitter