Alcohol Industry Drops Monkey Wrench in Nevada's Cannabis Gears

Heads up, cannabis-legalizing states that are building regulatory structures: the alcohol industry might have a way to put your fast-track industry into the slow lane.

It's all about distribution.

In the State of Nevada, where legal recreational cannabis sales are set to kick-off at midnight tonight, there's a lingering regulation that could cause big headaches across the state: "When the recreational marijuana statue was approved by voters, it gave alcohol wholesalers exclusive rights to the distribution licenses for the first 18 months..." according to an article by NBC News.

(There's some logic to this: the alcohol distribution business has been in place for decades. The same logic helped California Governor Jerry Brown select Lori Ajax as Chief of the newly formed Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation in 2016.)

The alcohol distributors have sued to protect their exclusive distribution rights which would mean that, without exception, upon legalization and for 18 months thereafter, ALL cannabis product must be delivered from the cultivators/manufacturers to the dispensaries. The case is in appeal.

Dispensary owners are stocking up in hopes that an agreement can be reached by the time they run out of the medicinal product they have on hand. Once it runs out, they are not allowed to get new product until the alcohol distributors get in the game.

The rubber will meet the road in as little as 30 days.