How To Get A Marijuana Card Online In Nevada

Way back in the 1910s and 20s, a wave of anti-cannabis sentiment swept over the country and the world. Back then, there was no distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. 

The movement to ban cannabis cultivation was spearheaded by powerful business and political leaders who saw industrial hemp as a threat to the lumber industry and who saw Mexican immigrants as a threat to society at large.

Nevada followed the pack and officially banned cannabis in all forms in 1923. 

It would be another three-quarters of a century before any serious consideration was given to the idea of reforming Nevada’s cannabis laws. 

The Nevada Medical Marijuana Act (Question 9) was approved by voters in 1998 by a double-digit margin. Voters approved the same measure again in 2000 by an almost two-thirds majority. Why did the measure appear on the ballot again two years after passing the first time? The answer is because the initiative called for no less than an amendment to the Nevada Constitution. And in order to go so far as to revise the state’s constitution, a measure must receive voter approval in two consecutive elections.

The initiative didn’t actually legalize medical marijuana. But it did require state lawmakers to do so. Assembly Bill 453 in June 2001 officially legalized medical marijuana in the state of Nevada as of October 1 of the same year. 

What the bill did not do was create a means by which residents of Nevada could legally purchase their medicine. Medical marijuana patients had two choices at that time – they could either purchase marijuana illegally or grow their own. Medical marijuana cardholders were permitted to grow up to 12 marijuana plants at home. 

The same bill also decriminalized marijuana replacing felony sentences with misdemeanor charges. At that time, the registration process was ridiculously slow prompting a class-action lawsuit intended to reform the current system. 

In 2002, another voter initiative gathered enough signatures to make the ballot. This time authors of the proposal sought to legalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana in Nevada. The initiative, known as the Decriminalization of Marijuana Amendment (Question 9) was soundly defeated by a two to one margin. 

In 2006, another recreational use measure, the Regulation of Marijuana Initiative (Question 7), was again defeated, but by a much smaller margin.

Then, more than ten years after legalizing medical marijuana, in June 2013, Senate Bill 374 was signed into law creating a state-regulated system for the commercial production and distribution of medical marijuana. 

However, the state’s sluggish license approval process and complex scoring and ranking system caused continued delays in implementation. License limits were at 182 cultivators, 118 processors, 55 dispensaries, and 17 testing laboratories. However, only 12 dispensary licenses were awarded. The limited market created fierce competition among companies vying to be awarded the coveted licenses but the process resulted in an atmosphere where dispensaries were well-funded, expertly executed, and elegantly designed. 

For recreational initiatives, the third time’s a charm, as they say, and in 2016, the Initiative to Regulate and Tax Marijuana (Question 2), was passed by voters officially legalizing the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for adults over the age of 21. Marijuana was officially legal for all adults in Nevada on January 1, 2017.

But the implementation of the state’s recreational program did not kill the medical marijuana program. We’ll talk about the differences here shortly.