Segerblom gifts lawmakers with pot-holiday brownies

Marijuana advocate State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, handed out brownies around the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to mark the pot holiday 4/20. Segerblom said the brownies were not laced with cannabis. Colton Lochhead Las Vegas-Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — On Thursday’s international marijuana holiday, a special surprise greeted lawmakers in their offices and on their desks on the floors of the Nevada Legislature.

Brownies, each with a sticker proclaiming “HAPPY 4-20.”

But the brownies awaiting lawmakers were a symbolic gesture from Sen. Tick Segerblom, the patriarch of legal marijuana in Nevada.

Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, who has a pot strain named after him, handed out similar brownies celebrating 4/20 in previous sessions as a gag. But since Nevadans voted to legalize marijuana in 2016, this year’s gesture carried a different meaning, he said.

“This year was more to say, ‘Get over it people. It’s the law,’” he said.

His fellow lawmakers seemed more than willing to play along on Twitter.

“Thanks Tick @tsegerblom, (but no thanks) after all, I’m diabetic,” tweeted Assembly Deputy Minority Floor Leader Jim Wheeler, R-Gardnerville, who opposed the legalization effort but posted a photo of his still-wrapped brownie.

Assemblyman Elliot Anderson, D-Las Vegas, tweeted a photo of a brownie but gave no indication if he was going to indulge.

“The question today at #nvleg is “do I trust @tsegerblom enough to eat this?”

Seeing his colleagues get a laugh out of the gag signaled to Segerblom that attitudes towards cannabis are changing, even at the Legislature.

“It shows how far we’ve come,” he said.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.