EDITORIAL: Uber, pot and the fear of change

What do Uber and marijuana have in common? The fear they instill in those who resist change to the entrenched status quo.

As reported by the Review-Journal's Richard Velotta, the Legislative Commission on Monday unanimously pre-approved regulations for transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft. The action will allow the companies' drivers to get on the road in less than a month, provided Uber and Lyft submit applications to operate in Nevada. Assuming they do — and there's no reason to think they won't, considering how hard Uber lobbied the Legislature this year to let the company back in the state after it was kicked out — the smartphone-based businesses that have revolutionized passenger transit around the world finally will be able to lawfully serve Nevadans.

In response, Jonathan Schwartz, a director for Yellow Checker Star — a cab company that will be forced to compete with Uber and Lyft — said the regulations are among the weakest in the country and "represent a public safety disaster for Las Vegas."

But transportation network companies don't function like cab companies. That's why they're so popular. Cab companies have good reason to fear the competition — it's a more efficient business model. Scare tactics won't change that.

Meanwhile, Southern Nevada is still waiting for the medical marijuana industry to open its first dispensary, more than two years after the law allowing them was enacted. Elected officials, still wedded to failed anti-drug policies and reluctant to do anything that might cast them as pro-marijuana, aren't working with much urgency to help dispensaries open and make lawful sales.

As reported by the Review-Journal's Eric Hartley, Sheila Gerstenzang has given up on ever using the drug to relieve her spinal pain. She allowed her $200 patient card to expire. More than 9,000 registered Nevada patients have just one option: a dispensary in Sparks.

Next year, Nevada voters are likely to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Won't that be tough medicine for nervous politicians to swallow.

Change can be scary. But it doesn't have to be — especially when change is necessary.