Nevada to allow marijuana cultivation in rural counties

The Nevada Department of Taxation announced Thursday that it will open up applications for marijuana cultivation and production licenses in many of state’s rural counties.

A limited number of licenses were given out after the state passed laws in 2013 that would lead to the retail sale of medical marijuana. Those licenses went to businesses in Clark, Washoe and Nye counties and Carson City, leaving none for the other 13 counties.

But in the most recent session of the Nevada Legislature, lawmakers passed a marijuana omnibus bill aimed at letting pot-barren counties have marijuana establishments. The new law allows the tax department to accept applications from counties with populations below 100,000 — everything outside of Clark and Washoe — so that all counties can have at least one marijuana production and cultivation facility.

The state will accept those applications from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16. The form for businesses to apply can be found on the tax department’s website.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.