Written by Michael Flynn
The Mesquite City Council decided to allow medical marijuana to be commercially cultivated and sold in Mesquite in a 4-1 vote at a special council session on Tuesday. The new law will allow a marijuana dispensary to operate within the city, along with a cultivation and production facility, which could, ostensibly, produce marijuana products for sale at dispensaries throughout the state of Nevada, which legalized marijuana use for medical purposes earlier this year.
The controversial move follows a public hearing last week, where residents on both sides of the issue expressed their views and heard a presentation discussing the potential impact of the proposed changes to the city code.
More residents spoke up before the council made their final vote. Many of those who opposed plans to allow the dispensaries and production facilities in Mesquite voiced concerns about the potential for increased crime related to marijuana use, and about fears that, by allowing the plant to be sold legally, the government is implicitly approving of drug use, which might cause children to think that it’s okay to use drugs.
“Marijuana does far more harm than good,” said Mesquite resident Debbie Fergus at last week’s public hearing. “My greatest concern,” she said, “is about the double standard we will be setting for the youth.”
Advocates of the proposed change spoke about the benefits that medical marijuana provides for those suffering from chronic pain and nausea, the potential economic benefits that it could bring to the city, and at times characterized their opponents fears as overblown or misinformed.
“There was once [a movie] called ‘Reefer Madness,’ and I think we are seeing a little bit of it this evening,” said John Williams of Mesquite. “In fact, there has never been a verified case of death from marijuana use,” he said. “I urge you to listen to the professionals, to the people who have some experience and factual information, and to try and keep the truth and throw out the stuff that ain’t so true.”
Because there is currently no dispensary in town, Mesquite residents who have a valid prescription are legally able to grow up to five marijuana plants under the new Nevada law. Once a dispensary opens, new medical marijuana users within 25 miles of the facility will no longer be permitted to grow the marijuana themselves, but will be required to purchase the plant from the dispensary.
Mesquite Councilwoman Cindi Delaney said that she thinks that having a dispensary in town will make it harder for children and those without a prescription to access the medical marijuana illegally, adding that many medical marijuana patients are not comfortable or able to grow the plant themselves.
“Currently, there are medical marijuana card holders in Mesquite,” Delaney said. “Those medical marijuana card holders have no way of getting their legally prescribed marijuana without growing it themselves because Nevada state has not approved of any dispensaries.”
The new law is slated to officially go into effect later this month. Before it passed, the council added language to one of the proposed ordinances stipulating that, should recreational marijuana become legalized in Nevada as it has in Colorado and Washington, if the council wants to authorize the sale of recreational pot in Mesquite, they will first have to hold a public referendum, allowing the residents to vote directly on the issue.
