Nevada marijuana official wants same treatment for medical, recreational products

The state official who oversees Nevada’s medical marijuana industry said Wednesday that he doesn’t see the need to treat the recreational product any differently except when it comes to taxes.

In Colorado, state laws require companies to separate medical and recreational marijuana at both the cultivation level, as well as when the product is sold. There are different checkout counters for medical and recreational sales in that state.

But Nevada doesn’t need to go that far, Joe Pollock, who oversees the state’s medical pot program, told the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday. Pollock said Nevada should sell the same product to both markets, but simply have different taxes at the point of sale.

Pollock said he would like to see the products treated equally to avoid the addition of regulatory burdens onto the industry and ensure that the recreational product is on par with the medical pot.

“I think there’s a lot of advantages of having recreational and medical marijuana treated the same, right up until the point of sale,” Pollock said, noting the higher tax on recreational marijuana.

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