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legislature lawmakers take field trip to scout out marijuana store By Andrew Doughman staff writer GLENDALE, Ariz. — There may be very few times that six elected officials surround themselves with pounds of marijuana and invite in photographers, television stations and newspaper reporters. But the cameras were rolling as six Nevada state legislators huddled in late March around a lit display case at Arizona Organix. They peered at an array of green cannabis buds with names like Gucci, Blue Elephant, Purple Kush and Platinum Dream. Some might call this a problem, but for legislators who saw the Arizona medical marijuana dispensary's safety and security controls, it started to look like a solution. Here's the issue: Nevada's constitution provides for medical marijuana, but critics, legislators and a district court judge have all said that there's really no convenient and lawful way for sick Nevadans to exercise their constitutional right to obtain medical marijuana. Nevada legislators jetted to Arizona to tour a medical marijuana dispensary, visit a marijuana grow house under development, and chat with state legislators and dispensary licensees in an attempt to learn firsthand how to carefully craft a secure, safe and sensible way to let medical marijuana patients get marijuana. "We just need to figure out a way to dispense this safely," said Sen. Mark Hutchison, R-Las Vegas. At Arizona Organix, Hutchison, Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, Sens. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas; Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas; Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas; and David Parks, DLas Vegas, toured the dispensary with hopes that they could bring home good business practices that they can put into a bill in the Nevada Legislature. "Wow, it smells in here," Fiore said as they entered. Bill Myer, the owner, greeted the delegation with his $500 annual dispensary license. Here was the smell of fresh green bud and the gleam of legitimacy. Myer guided the legislators through | 8 APRIL 2013 20130408_VI07_F.indd 7 | Andrew Doughman herbal education: Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore inspects the product and learns about the different uses for and varieties of marijuana during a trip to a dispensary in Arizona. "It's incredibly clean. It's very efficient. It seems very tight as far as the controls. If we could duplicate this in Nevada, I don't see how anyone would object." — state sen. tick segerblom, on the arizona marijuana dispensary the marijuana dispensing process: Patients arrive in the waiting room and scan a medical marijuana card into a secure government database, where licensed dispensary employees can see the patient's profile. If the patient has a legitimate card, he follows a "budtender" into a secure room, where they view the product, which costs $370-390 per ounce. The patient pays on-site and an employee logs the amount of marijuana bought before the patient leaves, thereby preventing a patient from immediately going to another dispensary to buy more above than the 2.5-ounce limit every two weeks. "We've got some very strict regulations from the state, and we're very happy for it," said Myer, whose dispensary opened Dec. 6 and has seen about 100 patients per day. "Give us a chance to show you we're good guys. It can be done right." Even though he runs a nonprofit business, he said he will likely pay "well over six figures annually" in both local and state sales tax. "The biggest smile I have on my face is when I hand over a big wad of money to the authorities," he said. Legislators roamed through the facility, talking to co-owner Ryan Wells and Steve Cottrell, the third-party quality controller for the dispensary. They inspected fudge brownies, lollipops, snickerdoodles and sugar cookies laced with marijuana, and they handled plastic buckets full of different varieties of marijuana. Crowding around a computer monitor, legislators fired off a series of questions about the card database. How do you know someone's card is real? How do you know how much someone has already purchased? Who has access to the state database? All this information should help legislators amend Segerblom's dispensary bill. Segerblom's bill, Senate Bill 374, would allow for the establishment and regulation of nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries for about 3,600 Nevadans with active medical marijuana cards. Voters in Nevada passed a constitutional amendment in 1998 and 2000 to allow for medical marijuana, and the Legislature passed a law in 2001 to allow for it. But Segerblom said it's not working well, and Nevada needs Arizona-style dispensaries to allow patients to actually get the marijuana to which they're entitled. "It's incredibly clean," Segerblom said of the Arizona dispensary. "It's very efficient. It seems very tight as far as the controls. If we could duplicate this in Nevada, I don't see how anyone would object." Although federal law bans marijuana, the owners of two Arizona dispensaries said they are not concerned. They've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in safe systems, and they say the federal government may not crack down on them. "The state of Arizona gave us the authorization to operate," Myer said. "The federal government has not. We understand that. We feel, personally, at Arizona Organix that we have a degree of insulation when they come looking for bad actors." The company touted its safety and security systems and its earnestness to behave within state and local laws. They also said their product is safety tested and good quality. "I've never seen bud this good," Segerblom said. "Obviously, the prices are very expensive. It's not given away. ... My days looking at bud were when there were more seeds than buds." "That was a long time ago, my friend," said Myer, smiling in front of the lighted marijuana display. Nevada's legislative delegation had time to take the trip, which they said they paid for themselves, because Nevada state Senate employees had to take a furlough day on March 22. 7 4/4/13 2:22:47 PM