MMJ Patient Boom in Nevada

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Some good news for Nevada’s medical cannabis businesses: the number of MMJ patients in the state may more than quadruple in coming years, according to a state health official.

Nevada is receiving about 300 medical marijuana card applications per month. If that pace keeps up, the number of registered patients will increase from the current number of about 14,000, to 60,000, a deputy administrator of the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health told the state’s Legislative Interim Finance Committee this week, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Through Feb. 10, there were 18 dispensaries that had received their final certificates, while 12 of them are open, according to state medical marijuana program numbers.

Nevada law mandates that state officials process applications within 30 days, but the deluge of applicants had stretched the time to 60 days. More recently, however, processing is averaging about three weeks. To deal with the application wave, the finance committee permitted the state’s medical marijuana program to use $464,000 to hire more contract workers, the Sun reported.

But the takeaway for Nevada MMJ licensees is that, unlike some of their counterparts in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, they definitely won’t be hurting for customers anytime soon.