Nevada lawmakers take Colorado marijuana tour

Trevor Hughes | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Nevada lawmakers take Colorado marijuana tour Nevada lawmakers take Colorado marijuana tour

DENVER — With smiles, selfies and a few nervous chuckles, a group of Nevada legislators and policymakers got a first-hand look at Colorado's fast-growing legal marijuana industry this weekend, coming face-to-face with thousands of green growing plants.

The small group is part of Nevada's efforts to understand what legalization could mean. The Silver State has permitted medical marijuana, and now there's talk voters might be asked to legalize recreational pot next year.

The group met its Colorado counterparts, and toured several marijuana stores, including the high-tech, 40,000-square-foot Medicine Man in Denver, one of the state's largest.

A company tour guide showed the group Medicine Man's growing and processing operations as the smell of marijuana hung heavy in the air and workers prepared young plants for potting. The guide also showed off a bucket of dried marijuana containing several pounds of processed pot, which sells in Colorado for about $2,500 a pound. On the black market, Colorado's high-potency pot can fetch $6,000, experts say.

Along with Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, although all went about it slightly differently and on different timeframes. Colorado is unique because it has hundreds of functioning stores and grow operations, all overseen by state regulators.

"Last time I was in one of these, we were doing a bust," joked Ron Dreher, a former narcotics and homicide detective who now works for the Peace Officers Research Association of Nevada.

"Life changes, huh?" state Sen. Richard "Tick" Segerblom, a Las Vegas Democrat, shot back with a laugh as the two men took pictures of the plants.

Dreher said he's concerned that legalized marijuana would serve as a gateway drug and about the impact of potentially increased access for kids. He also pointed out that while Nevada was the first state to legalize both gambling and prostitution, "we're on the back burner with marijuana."

Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, and state lawmakers are cautious about running afoul of the Justice Department. Voters, on the other hand, have forged ahead.

Colorado Rep. Jonathan Singer, a Democrat who represents an area near Boulder, urged Nevadans to think carefully but be prepared to act quickly. Colorado's voters didn't just legalize marijuana but also enshrined that right in the state constitution. While that makes it hard to abolish, it also makes the regulations hard to alter, Singer said. He said lawmakers ought to consider legalizing marijuana themselves, instead of falling behind a growing wave of public sentiment that pot should be treated like alcohol.

"The No. 1 thing I tell people that tax revenues for are up and the sky isn't falling. The naysayers were wrong," Singer said.

In February a similar delegation from Vermont conducted a fact-finding mission. Vermont is widely expected to become one of the next states to legalize, perhaps becoming the first state on the East Coast to take the plunge. A study commissioned by the Green Mountain State concluded taxes on legal pot sales could generate between $20 million and $75 million annually in Vermont. Colorado collected about $70 million in marijuana taxes and fees last year, the first year of legalization.

Mary Alice McKenzie, executive director of The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington, Vt., spent three days in Denver with the Vermont delegation. It wasn't enough, she said.

"We met with people who were just so deep into the details and they had so much to share at a certain point I felt like we were rushing in order to get to our next appointment," McKenzie said. "I wish we had had more time. That would be my advice, to take the time to be able to spend as much time as needed with the officials."

She said the main message she heard was to not be naïve about what legalization means, and most of all, to not do it for the revenue alone.

"They talked to us at every level about the resources needed to do this right and I just listened to this and thought, 'What are we going to do in Vermont? How would we come up with the money to do this the right way?' " McKenzie said. "Advocates say we'll take the monies needed out of revenues generated. Maybe that works, maybe it doesn't. Colorado folks said you have to be wise about the costs of doing this."

Nevada is struggling to find money to improve public education, and its delegates said the potential marijuana tax windfall is tempting. But Republican Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said she's worried taxing the industry too much – "gouging" – could keep buyers in the black market.

"Colorado's doing well with it. They are letting people be personally responsible for their actions," Fiore said after examining the edible marijuana products offered for sale at Medicine Man.

None of the Nevada delegation bought marijuana, at least not at their Medicine Man stop. Attorneys along on the trip suggested that wasn't the best idea, although Segerblom said he was tempted.

"When I was younger, I smoked it. I inhaled it. And I enjoyed it," he said with a smile. "And I'm old enough to do it again."

Contributing: Dan D'Ambrosio of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press