Nevada AG Recommends Barring Some CA Patients from MMJ Program

California patients opting for a physician’s recommendation instead of a state-issued card should no longer be legally allowed to access their medicine in Nevada, according to a letter sent by Attorney General Adam Laxalt to the state Department of Health and Human Services, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

“A recommendation from a California physician ad (sic) a driver’s license from another state cannot be used to obtain medical marijuana from a Nevada dispensary,” Laxalt said in the letter.

David Goldwater, owner of Inyo Fine Cannabis Dispensary, estimated about 40 percent of his business comes from out-of-state patients and said he would have to “drastically” change his business model if California patients were excluded from the Nevada program. He estimates more than 90 percent of California’s medical marijuana users choose the recommendation over the card to avoid registering with the state and associated costs.

“Not only [is it important] for our business, but for the patients who need medicine when they’re visiting here,” he said in the report. “…We should be able to respect those states and those patients who prefer not to register with them.”

The health department would need to codify the change to enact the measure as the recommendation from the attorney general does not change the law.