Thwarting a potentially lucrative business

To the editor:

Review-Journal reporter Mike Blasky hit the nail on the head with the first line of his Thursday article, “Pot growers like high ground.” The line reads: “At least one industry in Southern Nevada appears to be growing.”

In an economic period such as we are experiencing, with half-empty strip malls and major businesses shutting their doors, Nevada is closing its doors to an industry that could potentially bring millions of dollars in sales revenue and taxes to the state, not to mention much-needed jobs.

The voters of Nevada approved the use of medical marijuana, but the legislation made no concessions for the acquisition of this accepted medicine by legal patients. Some businesses opened to meet the needs of these patients, but virtually all have been shut down by Las Vegas police and the DEA. Not shut down because of slow business, like every other shuttered shop, but shut down because of antiquated laws, prejudices and misinformation.

Medical marijuana is legal in Nevada, but patients are forced to either grow their own (obtaining seeds is illegal), or find it the old-fashioned way: the black market. Meanwhile, a viable industry that has a proven clientele of licensed customers, a record of successful businesses, and a huge potential cash windfall, continues to be thwarted at every turn.

Rob Weidenfeld

HENDERSON

To the editor:

Friday’s Review-Journal included the headline, “Officials bury 4,000 pot plants.” It brings to mind the question of whether the names of the pot growers will be buried in the same pit.

As for me, I’m not waiting with bated breath for the names of the growers or the organizations they represent.

Could it be that law enforcement officials were so inept that they scared off the growers before an apprehension plan was implemented?

Or is it more likely that political correctness prevented apprehension and/or release of the growers’ names and perhaps even the Mexican drug cartels they represented?

FYI, many of the pot farm seizures on California state and federal forest lands can be traced back to Mexican drug cartels.

John J. Erlanger

Las Vegas