CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – Regulators took steps this week to make sure Nevada’s fledgling but popular marijuana industry doesn’t run out of pot to sell. But questions remain about whether newly minted distributors can handle the heavy demand, and the possibility of another legal roadblock may be looming on the horizon.
Tax commissioners charged with enforcing the unusual administrative structure that has led to a distribution bottleneck got their first real taste of the potential crisis at retail dispensaries during a three-hour hearing on Thursday.
“Being fully integrated, we have one facility so we can grow it in the back, have a production kitchen in the middle and a retail store in the front,” said James Green, a retired police officer who runs Shango Las Vegas, one of the city’s largest pot retail operations.
“But legally today, my shelves are partially empty, and I can’t even go to the back room and move products to the front room,” he said.
The 47 retailers currently licensed to sell recreational pot previously operated as medical marijuana outlets, which were allowed to move products between cultivators, manufacturers and retail store fronts. But that changed when recreational sales began July 1 and anyone transporting pot was required to obtain a distribution license.