What Will Question 2 Mean for Nevada?

Medical marijuana has been legal in Nevada since 2000 and a regulated market for medical marijuana was established after the legislature acted in 2013. This has provided patients in the state safe and reliable access to the medicine they need. Now, on November 8th, the voters of our state will decide, through a vote on Question 2, whether we should have a regulated marijuana market for all adults. In the middle of both the medical and adult-use marijuana debates in the state has been Senator Tick Segerblom, one of marijuana’s most vocal advocates in Nevada. He has used his platform and role as a State Senator and community leader to promote the idea that private, adult-use of marijuana is just as acceptable as alcohol and can provide many benefits to the State.

Senator Segerblom took a leap as a well-respected attorney and lifelong Nevada resident to advocate on behalf of adult-use of marijuana. Alongside his work fighting for Nevada’s employees, as well as for criminal justice reform, Senator Segerblom has pushed the people of the state toward recognition that marijuana prohibition is a failed policy. It is not preventing people from using marijuana – 47% of Americans use marijuana in their lifetime – but is preventing the State from regulating marijuana sales and generating much-needed tax revenue. Not surprisingly, Senator Segerblom is one of more than a dozen members of the state legislature who have endorsed passage of Question 2.

But what will Question 2 mean for Nevada’s residents and tourists?

What Question 2 WILL DO:

•     Allow purchases and possession of one ounce of marijuana by persons over 21 years of age
•     Establish a system of strict regulation for the cultivation, processing, and sale of marijuana
•  Allow a limited number of retail stores (about 130) to operate in the state, with localities able to determine number and location
•     Generate tax revenue for schools through a 15% excise tax

What Question 2 WILL NOT DO:

•     Allow marijuana to be used in public
•     Change existing laws regarding driving under the influence
•     Allow unlicensed individuals to sell or produce any amount of marijuana
•  Affect employers’ current marijuana policies or their ability to establish workplace restrictions on marijuana consumption by employees
•     Change existing medical marijuana laws or affect patients’ rights

Projected Benefits:

•     Generate more than $60,000,000.00 in annual tax revenue
•     Direct more than $20,000,000.00 per year to Nevada schools
•   Generate more than $1.1 billion in overall economic activity (by utilizing products and services of local businesses other than marijuana businesses)
•     Replace the black market with strictly regulated businesses that, unlike drug dealers, cannot sell to youth
•     Allow law enforcement to focus resources on more serious crimes

November 8th will be an interesting day for the country, and an especially interesting day for Nevada. It will be a day where we decide if we want to continue the failed policy of marijuana prohibition, which has steered billions of dollars to drug cartels and other criminals, or if we want to regulate it, as we do with alcohol, and reap the benefits.