County adjusts codes in anticipation of recreational marijuana

As Nye County is trying to catch up with state policies after the passage of recreational marijuana use last year, county commissioners adopted new rules for pot establishments.

Nevada became one of eight states that allow use of recreational marijuana after Nevada voters approved it on the Nov. 8 ballot. Since Jan. 1, Nevada residents age 21 and older can possess up to one ounce of marijuana for recreational use.

On Feb. 21, Nye County commissioners adopted a bill that amended Nye County Code Title 17, related to zoning and special use permits for marijuana establishments.

Nye County Planning Director Darrell Lacy said the Nevada Department of Taxation is working on new regulations with a target of July 1 for sales of recreational marijuana. Nye County, meanwhile, started with the zoning code for medical marijuana establishments special use permits that don’t conflict with state regulations.

“Zoning is basically a local issue and securing a location is always the first step,” Lacy said.

“We are now trying to go through our ordinances and catch up with the changes that were made there to make things work together,” Lacy said.

Nye County’s Title 5.32, licensing code for medical marijuana establishments has a much closer integration to state regulations, Lacy said.

“We will try to wait for state laws and regulation changes before we modify 5.32,” Lacy said. “We expect draft regulations from the Nevada Department of Taxation within the next month or so with adoption in May. There are also discussions of bills at the state Legislature to correct confusing parts of the law.”

So far, officials removed the word “medical” from the existing ordinance. They also got rid of “industrial hemp.”

“I do recommend a couple of changes to this ordinance from what you have in front of you. Due to some conflicts with another state law, I would like to remove all mention of industrial hemp from this ordinance,” Lacy told Nye County commissioners at the Feb. 21 meeting.

Lacy said his understanding is that the intent of the medical marijuana initiative was “to allow existing medical marijuana businesses to start quickly into recreational if in operation and good standing with state and local marijuana licenses.”

“We have also had inquiries about new locations for recreational marijuana, which is one reason to get our zoning code updated first. But under the state initiative, the medical marijuana businesses have an 18-month head start before new licenses can be given out,” Lacy said.

About half of Nye County’s approved medical marijuana businesses have yet to start operating.

On May 3, 2016, Nye County commissioners put a condition on renewals with one year to get operational.

“So most, if not all medical marijuana establishments only have a couple of months to get in operation or their county licenses will expire, which means they will not qualify for growing or processing recreational marijuana,” Lacy said.

The bill goes into effect March 13.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77