Boom in Nevada Patient Base

It looks like Nevada’s medical cannabis dispensaries will have plenty of customers to keep them busy.

There’s been a major uptick in the state’s MMJ patient base this year, with the total surging from around 8,000 at the start of 2015 to 10,119 at the end of August, according to the Las Vegas Sun. That’s an increase of roughly 25%.

There also were 560 pending applications left for the state to process at the end of last month.

This is only one part of the equation for dispensaries, as Nevada’s pioneering reciprocity provision allows out-of-state patients to purchase cannabis while visiting. So the actual market base could be much bigger.

The increase in registered patients is tied to the opening of the state’s first dispensaries this summer, officials at Nevada’s Medical Marijuana Program said.

The state even grappled with a backlog of patient registration applications, and the agency has had to adjust so it can return to its standard 30-day processing timeline.