First MMJ Dispensary Opens Today In Nevada

After 15 years of legal medical marijuana and no place to legally purchase it, Nevada’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened to long lines and a cheering crowd this morning.

The dispensary, Silver State Relief in Sparks, hung a banner from its roof that declared: “Relief is here.”

The process for the state’s dispensaries to finally open to the public took years. In June 2013, Governor Brian Sandoval signed a bill into law to legalize dispensaries. Then, it took until November 2014 for the state to grant 55 provisional licenses to dispensary applicants. In May 2015, Silver State Relief received their final medical marijuana certificate from the state, the first in Northern Nevada. Then, in the early months of this summer, dispensary owners had to wait to launch their businesses until they had harvested enough marijuana and passed last minute testing requirements.

Now, after waiting through two years of applications, permits, building and cultivation, the public was anxious to be a part of the state’s history.

“We’ve received two or three emails and phone calls a day for the past few months asking when we’re going to be open,” Silver State Relief’s owner, Aron Swan, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. He also said that he received more than 150 job applications for dispensary positions.

Currently, the dispensary will only be selling a limited amount of medical marijuana from six different strains and it will take months more before their next crop will be ready. As of opening day, the dispensary only had 12 to 14 pounds of marijuana to sell.

In 2016, Nevada will vote on whether or not to legalize adult-use marijuana in the state.

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