Governor Sisolak: More Transparency Needed for Marijuana Licensing (Subscriber Content)

CARSON CITY — Governor Steve Sisolak and Department of Taxation Executive Director Melanie Young last week called for increased transparency in for Nevada’s marijuana businesses. The two introduced an amendment to Senate Bill 32 during the bill’s hearing. The bill changes provisions relating to confidentiality of records and files in the Department of Taxation.

The amendment would exempt certain scoring and ranking documentation, including evidence of scoring methodologies for marijuana establishment applications, from confidentiality requirements, according to Sisolak.

This provision of Nevada law has made Nevada’s cannabis industry secretive with ownership of cannabis establishments cloaked in confidentiality.

However, some aspects of confidentiality will remain despite the amendment. That includes certain personal, investigative, and proprietary information. The amendment will also be retroactive; meaning qualifying documents received by the Department of Taxation on or after May 1, 2017, public record.

“This amendment is an important step in a multi-pronged approach to greater transparency in marijuana licensing under my administration,” Sisolak said. “As our legal marijuana industry has evolved and flourished, it’s more important than ever that the industry and the public enjoy the benefits of a completely open and transparent process from licensing to operation so that our marijuana industry can become the gold standard in the nation.”

Taxation department Director Young agreed: “I share Gov. Sisolak’s commitment to increasing transparency within the marijuana licensing process. I look forward to working alongside the governor’s office and the legislature to implement this and other needed reforms to shed more light on how marijuana licenses are issued.”

Sisolak earlier this year created an advisory panel to form the Cannabis Compliance Board, which aims to regulate and grow Nevada’s marijuana industry.