Las Vegas & marijuana

Poll
5 votes (62.5%)
2 votes (25%)
1 vote (12.5%)

8 members have voted

May 1st, 2017 at 4:09:35 PM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Last week, the Nevada Senate passed Bill 236.

Quote: Las Vegas Review Journal
Senate Bill 236, which would let local governments permit marijuana social clubs and other forms of public use currently outlawed, took one step closer to becoming law Tuesday. The bill passed with a 12-9 vote on Tuesday, and it now goes to the Assembly. On Monday, Clark County’s marijuana advisory panel finalized recommendations for for county commissioners that detail how marijuana lounges in Southern Nevada could work.

In Colorado this month, lawmakers gutted a bill that would have permitted social pot clubs after Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that such a move could draw the ire of the administration and bring federal drug enforcers down upon the state’s billion-dollar industry. In Alaska, lawmakers delayed a law allowing consumption in dispensaries, and Maine is considering a similar move.

That leaves the door open for Nevada to become the first state to allow regulated social clubs.


Will Jeff Sessions do anything to punish Nevada?
June 5th, 2017 at 9:34:08 AM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Nevada holds the distinction of being the only state to set up retail sales of recreational pot within just 8 months of the passage of a ballot initiative. No other state has been so speedy.

The plan was for retail sales to begin on July 1, 2017. But there has been a speed bump, and it looks like there might be a delay due to a lawsuit by Nevada's wholesale liquor distributors who were originally granted a monopoly on distributing marijuana in the state.

Quote: Reno Gazette Journal
Nevada may not get recreational marijuana sales in July as promised.

A group of alcohol distributors are demanding that they have exclusive rights to transport marijuana for the first 18 months of the industry. A district court judge in Carson City validated their concerns Tuesday evening, issuing an order that prevents the state from issuing any recreational marijuana distribution licenses before the matter is resolved.


Makes me wonder if the liquor distributors are taking a risk: would the U.S. Department of Treasury (which oversees the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) revoke their liquor license? Plenty of banks are worried that if they offer banking services to marijuana businesses that they could get in trouble with the Feds.

Quote: San Diego Union Tribune
“Bankers have said that in the current environment, with the enforcement and examiners looking at everything bankers are doing, they aren’t really predisposed to take on anything risky,” said Rob Rowe, vice president and associate chief counsel of regulatory compliance for the American Bankers Association. “And banking a marijuana business is risky.”

No banking access means paying employees, bills and taxes in cash. It means no credit or debit card payments from clients. No small business loans or real estate mortgages. No services from mainstream armored car companies that also contract with the federal government. No official records to build credit or establish a financial identity.


In other words, Governor Sandoval's marijuana taxation scheme entails that the state's Department of Taxation collect $70 million in cash.
June 5th, 2017 at 9:45:43 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: reno

Makes me wonder if the liquor distributors are taking a risk: would the U.S. Department of Treasury (which oversees the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) revoke their liquor license? Plenty of banks are worried that if they offer banking services to marijuana businesses that they could get in trouble with the Feds.


Are they federally licensed? Or is that a state license?

What would Sheriff Lamb do?
The President is a fink.
June 5th, 2017 at 1:17:42 PM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Quote: AZDuffman
Are they federally licensed? Or is that a state license?

What would Sheriff Lamb do?


Yes, alcohol wholesalers & distributers must obtain a license from the federal government. Here's the clause from the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's website:

Quote: Department of Treasury
Persons who wish to wholesale (buying alcohol for sale to another wholesaler or to a retailer) or import alcohol beverages must obtain a permit from TTB before starting operations.
June 5th, 2017 at 1:22:09 PM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: reno
Yes, alcohol wholesalers & distributers must obtain a license from the federal government. Here's the clause from the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's website:


Thanks. Here in PA there is only one seller of wine and distilled beverages. I think the state licenses beer, I never heard of a federal license for that but I am talking retail not wholesale.
The President is a fink.
June 5th, 2017 at 1:47:21 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: AZDuffman
Thanks. Here in PA there is only one seller of wine and distilled beverages.


In MI you can buy beer and wine in every
gas station store and even liquor in a
lot of them. In a 4 mile radius of my
house I buy hard liquor in a dozen places
and beer and wine in 2 dozen. God bless
America.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
June 5th, 2017 at 2:01:13 PM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Evenbob
In MI you can buy beer and wine in every
gas station store and even liquor in a
lot of them. In a 4 mile radius of my
house I buy hard liquor in a dozen places
and beer and wine in 2 dozen. God bless
America.


Beer is loosening up here, though you mostly have to go to a beer distrubutor, some are as nice as a grocery store and some are just a pull-in depot where you order at a counter of sorts. Wine and spirits at what us older folks call a "State Store." Years ago they were Soviet-like. See a sign for one in "Slap Shot" when they are walking in the town square.

Bars might like it since no bar can get a volume discount, same price for you or me as the highest volume bar in town.
The President is a fink.
June 5th, 2017 at 2:05:31 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: AZDuffman
Beer is loosening up here, though you mostly have to go to a beer distrubutor,


The wine section of some grocery stores
is a wonderland of hundreds of different
wines, set in it's own secluded area. A
lot of gas station stores have huge walk
in beer coolers where the temp is 40 all
the time and there is 400 sq ft of nothing
but ice cold beer in every shape and size.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
June 5th, 2017 at 2:12:28 PM permalink
reno
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 58
Posts: 1384
Quote: AZDuffman
Are they federally licensed?


I recognize that there are a million examples of the federal government being inconsistent, contradictory, hypocritical and/or downright schizophrenic. But consider it: there are currently over 11,500 inmates doing time in federal prisons for marijuana offenses with an average sentence of 88 months. And yet that same federal government will knowlingly be issuing liquor licenses to Nevada booze trucks filled with marijuana. And let's be realistic: those trucks won't be distributing ounces of marijuana... they'll be distributing pounds of dope. Daily. And the customers won't be cancer patients on chemo. They'll be tourists & frat boys getting stoned on vacation in Las Vegas.
June 5th, 2017 at 2:17:36 PM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Evenbob
The wine section of some grocery stores
is a wonderland of hundreds of different
wines, set in it's own secluded area. A
lot of gas station stores have huge walk
in beer coolers where the temp is 40 all
the time and there is 400 sq ft of nothing
but ice cold beer in every shape and size.


Wine has loosened up a little, and I mean a flipping little. Wineries could for years sell at their winery and some had a small store. Otherwise the State Store. Under 30 folks need "state store" explained since the signs changed years ago. Us older folks remember.

On one hand I do give them high marks for having clean, well-lit stores. The employees have been of help 99% of the time, the 1% being a stumper question. Only once were they a little rude, when I asked if they had Trump wine. A more senior employee eventually helped on that one, and they shipped it halfway across the state for me to pick up. I had to wait weeks as it went from store to store as they shipped other things, but I was in no hurry. They did that FREE.
The President is a fink.