Nevada has had a medical marijuana program in place for quite awhile. There have also been unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Nevada for awhile too. But those dispensaries operated below the radar, and once they were ‘discovered’ they were usually closed down. That all changes today with the opening of Nevada’s first licensed medical marijuana dispensary. Per the Reno Gazette-Journal:
Nevada’s very first medical marijuana dispensary, Silver State Relief, is set to open in Sparks this Friday.
Silver State Relief now possesses around 200 plants, brought in from all around Nevada, which they will use to grow future crops. Now that they have purchased the plants, they are not limited by how many they can grow in the future.
Because plants can take months to yield a crop, Swan said his dispensary’s initial offerings will be modest, with around 12-14 pounds of marijuana available on opening day. Patients are allowed to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana per 14-day period, but given that the store will have a slim supply, the dispensary will be limiting purchases to a half-ounce per transaction.
I would imagine that 12-14 pounds will go very, very fast. I just hope that prices are reasonable, and stay reasonable during the grand opening of the dispensary. There is a trend in the marijuana retail industry where if supply is low, and retail locations are limited, the price for medicine goes through the roof until there is more competition. That may be fine for other industries, but these are patients, and dispensaries are supposed to be about compassion, not profit.
That’s not to say that dispensary owners shouldn’t make money, because they absolutely should. I’m just saying profit shouldn’t be the primary motivator. This is a very significant day for not only patients in Nevada, but also for the industry as a whole. It has been a long time getting Nevada’s medical marijuana industry off the ground, and today should be celebrated. Nevada has the potential to become one of, if not the, biggest market in America due to the fact that out of state patients can make purchases at Nevada dispensaries, combined with the level of tourism that exists in Nevada.
