Nullification - 1st Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens in Nevada

People line up Friday morning at Silver State Relief in Sparks.
It's the first medical marijuana dispensary in the state.
(Photo: Andy Barron/RGJ)

Freedom - What a Concept

The Founding Fathers did not believe in a top down centralized state and gave us the 10th Amendment.

(Tenth Amendment Center)  -  Nevada’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened last Friday, representing another step toward nullifying the federal ban on cannabis in practice in the Silver State.

Nevada legalized marijuana for medical use more than a decade ago, but it wasn’t until 2013 that the legislature passed a bill allowing dispensaries to operate legally. That law didn’t go into effect until April 2014.

Of course, dispensaries operated under the radar ever since the state legalized medicinal cannabis. But operators knew state authorities could shut them down at any time. Now these businesses can emerge from the shadows.

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the grand opening of Silver State Relief was the culmination of nearly two years of planning, registering, building and growing. Along with its retail space, the company also operates a grow facility in a nearby warehouse.

“It’s a plant,” general manager Aron Swan said. “It’s an herb that helps people.”

Helpful of not, the federal government prohibits Silver State Relief’s new operation. In fact, the feds maintain a blanket ban on marijuana for any purpose. But the grand opening of the new Nevada facility further roots cannabis in the state and represents another beg step toward nullifying that federal ban in effect.

The federal government lacks any constitutional authority to prohibit or regulate marijuana within the borders of a state, despite the opinion of the politically connected lawyers on the Supreme Court. If you doubt this, ask yourself why it took a constitutional amendment to institute federal alcohol prohibition.

Many people find it abhorrent that the federal government denies Americans suffering from debilitating pain a treatment that offers them relief. When states back the federal ban, these patients face an agonizing choice: risk jail or suffer in silence. But 23 states have said, “No!” to federal prohibition, and “Yes!” to patients who benefit from marijuana.

While the feds can still try to enforce their ban in Nevada, arresting a cancer patient simply trying to find relief from pain doesn’t make for very good PR. More importantly, the number of states legalizing marijuana for both medical use, and for the general public, has made it increasingly difficult for the DEA to enforce prohibition. The federal government simply lacks the resources to impose its will on more than half the country.

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California
A state run bank for the marijuana industry
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(Sacramento Bee)  -  With legalized recreational marijuana possibly on the horizon in California, tax board officials signaled their interest Friday in forming a state-run bank that would allow pot-industry operators to transition from what has traditionally been a cash business.

Access to financial institutions is difficult given the federal prohibition on the drug.

Democrat Fiona Ma, of the state Board of Equalization, said that under the state’s nearly two-decade-old medical marijuana program, growers and dispensary operators typically pay their state taxes in cash, creating concerns about public safety.

With state initiatives to legitimize recreational pot aiming for next year’s ballot, and with federal lawmakers taking up legislative solutions, Ma said the time is right for officials here to begin assessing the details of what a state-run bank might look like.

Read more at The People's Republic