RegTalk: New Nevada Law Requires Disclosure Marijuana Business Information, 16 Applicants Received 61 Licenses

By Susan Ameel, co-founder and partner of Global Regulatory Risk Advisors.

Governor Steve Sisolak signed a new law into effect that requires the state to publicly disclose an extensive amount of information about marijuana businesses. The law requires the state to disclose the names of the businesses, their principals and the applicant scores.  The law also requires the state to disclose information regarding the most recent license allocation process.

The information reveals that 16 organizations received 61 licenses.  53% of the awardees did not previously own a dispensary, and 59% had a person who qualified the applicant organization as a diversity applicant. The state also revealed that contractors or consultants were used to score the applicants for licensing purposes.This obviously raises concerns about the independence of the consultants, and absence of conflicts of interests including those following the allocation process. The state should consider revising this process ahead of the next open application process.

Information released regarding marijuana businesses includes:

• Names of current owners of marijuana establishments.
• Information regarding the evaluators of the license applications.
• The use of state contractors for license application evaluation.
• The tools contractors used to evaluate applications.
• Methods contractors employed to evaluate applications.
• Companies that applied for licenses.
• Names of owners, officers and board members that applied.
• Who was awarded licenses and who was not.
• Applicant scores.

The information from the September - December retail store process if provided below.

• Retail Dispensary licenses Available: 64
• Application period: 10 days
• Evaluation & scoring period: 90 days
• Number of applications received:   462
• Number of applicants:   127
• Number of jurisdictions:    17
• Number of applicants awarded licenses: 17
• Number of conditional licenses awarded:   61
• Awardees with diversity in ownership, officers or board members: 59%
• Awardees that didn't previously have a dispensary: 53%

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