Nevada Marijuana Regulations Face Court Challenge Before Even Written

State regulators have not even finished writing the laws that will govern Nevada's recreational marijuana sales, which are supposed to get under way on July 1. That's not stopping the state's liquor industry from taking them to court.

The liquor lobby will try to convince a judge that liquor distributors are the only ones eligible to receive a license to dispense marijuana. The ballot measure approved by voters say that liquor distributors are supposed to get first shot at getting the licenses.

Nevada is trying to open it up to allow medical marijuana establishments and growers to act as their own distributors. (Subscribe to local news alerts on Patch).

While the measure passed November does give liquor distributors exclusive first rights to the licenses, it does give the state an out - saying that if they determine there was insufficient interest they can open the process.

Of the just over 90 applications, only five were from liquor distributors.

The industry lobby says that those five - which serve dozens of alcohol retail shops - are more than capable of serving the state. They are argue it's not the number of wholesalers applying but how much business they can do.

The judge in the case - who will also consider a state motion to dismiss the suit - has said the case needs to be resolved quickly but has not set a timetable.

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