First marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas area opening Monday

Fifteen years after medical marijuana was legalized in Nevada, Clark County’s first retail dispensary plans to open to the public Monday.

Euphoria Wellness, 7780 S. Jones Blvd., will begin selling to patients at 10 a.m. Monday. To help contend with expected high demand, only 250 people who have pre-registered will be allowed to buy marijuana and cannabis-infused products on each of the first two days.

On Wednesday, the dispensary will be open to any licensed cardholder, of which there are about 9,500 statewide. Medical marijuana cardholders from other states also will be able to shop at Nevada dispensaries.

Nevada voters legalized medical marijuana in 2000, but no system for distributing the drug through retail outlets was set up, meaning patients had to grow their own marijuana. In 2013, the Legislature approved new laws allowing for marijuana dispensaries, growing facilities and testing labs.

The opening of Euphoria Wellness has been two years in the making after repeated delays because of bureaucratic red tape and trouble acquiring cannabis to sell in the store.

The dispensary passed its inspections and initially wanted to open earlier this year, but a clash with county regulators over a plan to acquire its initial supply of marijuana from cardholders who had grown their own plants led to a deadlock that kept the store closed .

With cultivation facilities now online, Euphoria Wellness will sell commercially grown marijuana. Patients will temporarily be restricted to buying up to a half ounce of cannabis until supplies increase, spokesman Jim Ferrence said.

“We hope to lift it as soon as possible,” he said. “We need to see what the demand is going to be, and the supply side is somewhat in question.”

Nevada’s first dispensary, Silver State Relief, opened in Sparks last month. Several other dispensaries around the Las Vegas area are expected to open in the coming months.