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2-Minute Preview: Head start for pot sales, fighting Obamacare repeal, social worker training up Friday

Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Michelle Rindels
Michelle Rindels
EconomyLegislatureMarijuana
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An employee prepares cannabis for planting in the propagation room at Reef Dispensaries

It’s the end of another week in Carson City, and state lawmakers still have a lot to do before heading home for the weekend. Legislators will hear testimony on a number of bills, from immediately allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to start selling recreational pot, to continuing education for social workers.

Here’s a look at what’s happening today:

An early start for recreational pot?

Nevada voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana for sale and use during the 2016 election, but Democratic Sen. Tick Segerblom wants to kickstart the process.

That’s the gist of SB302, which is sponsored by Segerblom and would allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to begin selling recreational marijuana before regulations are adopted by the state’s Department of Taxation, which has until 2018 to draft the rules and requirements for the new industry. The bill is designed to act as a temporary measure and would expire once the first recreational marijuana license is issued.

The measure also makes a few tax changes — it eliminates a 2 percent tax on wholesale sales of marijuana by cultivation facilities sold for the production of edible marijuana products, and raises the existing tax on retail sales by medical marijuana dispensaries from 2 to 5 percent. It also puts a 15 percent excise tax on marijuana sales by medical dispensaries and for all retail sales. Like all other tax increases, the measure requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass constitutional muster.

Watch the hearing on the bill at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Continuing education for social workers

Under current law, social workers have to complete two hours of instruction on evidence-based suicide prevention and awareness every year.

SB387, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, would change that requirement to two hours every two years in order for the social worker to renew his or her license.

Watch the hearing on the bill upon adjournment of the Assembly floor session in the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor.

Fighting against Obamacare repeal

On the same day that the Republican-controlled Congress is expected to vote on an Obamacare replacement, the Democrat-controlled Nevada Legislature is considering a measure that urges federal representatives to keep the law in place.

SJR8 argues that about 370,000 Nevadans, and 24 million Americans, could lose coverage if Obamacare is repealed. Such a move would be detrimental to the state’s economy, the health care industry and Nevada families, it argues.

Watch the debate around midday in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

 

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