The months-long litigation over marijuana’s Scheduled 1 drug designation in Nevada is finally over. Weeks after a Clark County District Court judge weighed in on a closely-followed lawsuit filed against the Nevada Board of Pharmacy determining that the listing of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug is against the state’s constitution, the final ruling was issued on Wednesday, reported The Nevada Independent.
With the new decision, which follows an interesting precedent at the state court level that sought to remove cannabis’s schedule 1 designation, Judge Joe Hardy stripped the Board of Pharmacy of the ability to regulate cannabis.
The judge said that the board “acted outside of its authority when it failed to remove cannabis from the list of Schedule I substances” even though voters amended the state constitution to legalize medical marijuana.
“If the [pharmacy] board designates a substance as a ‘controlled substance,’ but the designation falls outside the authority delegated by the Legislature, the designation is invalid,” the new ruling said.
Nevada legalized medical marijuana use in 2000 followed by another ballot in 2017 that legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use.
Background
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada won a clear victory in September after filing the lawsuit in April 2022. Judge Hardy sided with the ACLU’s argument that marijuana has an accepted medical use.
“The notion that a state agency is able to engage in unlawful actions because…
