Nevada Marijuana Plans Halted By Judge

A judge on Tuesday handed Nevada's marijuana plans a setback, siding with the state's liquor distributors regarding who has the right to bring marijuana from growers to retailers.

The state, which hopes to allow recreational marijuana to start being sold on July 1, has argued that under the referendum passed by voters in November it has the ability to give distribution licenses to non-alcohol distributors. Regulators had hoped to issue licenses to medical marijuana establishments.

While the measure passed in November does give liquor distributors exclusive first rights to the licenses, it does give the state an out — saying that if it determines there was insufficient interest it can open the process. (Subscribe to local news alerts on Patch).

Of the just more than 90 applications for licenses that the state received, only five were from liquor distributors.

The industry lobby says that those five — which serve dozens of alcohol retail shops — are more than capable of serving the state. It argues it's not the number of wholesalers applying but how much business they can do.

District Judge James Wilson ruled that the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada could suffer irreparable harm if the state was allowed to give licenses to businesses that were not alcohol distributors.

"Once licenses are issued to others, it will be difficult if not impossible to revoke those licenses," the judge wrote.

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