Residents or tourists: Who are Nevada’s medical marijuana laws really intended for?
By Chris Kudialis, Las Vegas Sun
Reclining leather seats, a 42-inch television screen and stencils of bright red marijuana leaves illuminate the back of 420 Tours’ sport utility vehicle. The SUV, along with a 30-foot bus, are used by Nevada’s first cannabis tour company, which takes people looking for a medical marijuana card and legal pot from street corner to dispensary in less than an hour.
Using the app EaseMD, 420 Tours founder Drew Gennuso connects pre-screened passengers who have a California ID or U.S. passport with a California doctor, live over video chat, in the back seat of the “Cannabus” SUV. The patients, frequently picked up on the Strip, describe their symptoms, receive a doctor’s recommendation printed on the spot and are taken to a Las Vegas dispensary of their choice.
Nearly three years after landmark legislation legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in Nevada, patients and licensed business owners remain trapped in a grueling application process that keeps legal pot unattainable to many in the state.
And while Nevada patients and retailers stumble through the state’s red tape, entrepreneurs are cashing in on Nevada’s reciprocity laws, which allow out-of-state patients to play here by their own states’ more lenient rules.
