As you no doubt know by now, recreational marijuana is coming to Nevada.
Since election day, we have heard from a few of our patients with medical cards expiring in the coming months that they don’t plan to renew them, in anticipation of recreational sales. There are two reasons why Reef suggests renewing your medical card:
1) Recreational sales won’t begin until late 2017 or early 2018
Nevada voters decided to legalize recreational marijuana, but the state still has to build the regulatory infrastructure to start issuing licenses for recreational sales. If your medical card expires soon, you may be unable to purchase from a dispensary for months until the recreational legal framework goes into effect. Read more here.s
2) Recreational sales will be more expensive due to higher state taxes
Even when recreational sales do begin, the state will be taking a 15% tax on wholesale sales of marijuana. While that doesn’t equate to a direct tax at the register, it will result in higher prices all the way down the line, so the tax will probably be baked into the final purchase price for recreational sales. No one knows yet exactly what the final rules will look like (see #1 above), but depending on how much cannabis you purchase, you may still save money overall by paying for your renewal than by switching to recreational purchases.
We will continue to keep you updated about details of recreational sales as they become available. Watch here or ask your Reef associate next time you visit us.
