The first legal medical cannabis dispensary has opened in Las Vegas. Euphoria Wellness opened Monday morning several kilometres southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. Nevada approved medical cannabis 15 years ago, but it wasn’t until 2013 when a plan was put in place for cultivation and sales. The State’s first dispensary opened in the city of Sparks this past July.
Euphoria Wellness spokesman Jim Ferrence said the shop’s owners are overjoyed to be the first in the Las Vegas area, where around 70 percent of the state’s 9,542 patient cardholders reside.
The business had hoped to open earlier, but bureaucratic delays at both state and county levels, along with other dispensary applications, took the owners longer than expected. For example, Euphoria Wellness was going to buy cannabis grown by patients, but faced resistance from county regulators who said that wasn’t allowed.
Ferrence said growers then started sending their products to testing labs for approval. Meanwhile, Ferrence says Euphoria Wellness will eventually have its own cultivation operation, and thus steady supply. As of now patients are limited to half-an-ounce and on the first couple days of opening, the dispensary had to limit sales to 200 patients a day.