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Nevada State Athletic Commission member applies for medical marijuana business permit

By Zach Arnold | May 5, 2014

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Somewhere, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Nick Diaz are wondering what the hell is going on here.

Anthony Marnell III, who was appointed to the Nevada State Athletic Commission by Governor Brian Sandoval, is one of many big business types who reportedly filed an application for a medical marijuana business permit.

Clear River LLC (production, cultivation and dispensary) — Manager Anthony Marnell III is president of the M Resort.

Marnell III is now a member of an athletic commission that is infamous for hammering fighters over testing positive for marijuana metabolites. That isn’t the only conflict of interest, however, for Marnell III at NSAC. NSAC recently approved King of the Cage events that just happened to be booked at Edgewater Casino, one of his properties.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Take a look at who else is on the list of people who applied for permits in Clark County.

Doctors Dispensary LLC (dispensary, cultivation production) — Managing members include Las Vegas hematologist Dr. Oscar Goodman Jr., son of current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and former Mayor Oscar Goodman. Other managing members include Dr. Michael Resnick, a Las Vegas dermatologist, former Planet Hollywood Resort president William Feather and Las Vegas attorney Raffi Nahabedian.

Raffi has been an attorney for MMA fighters Chael Sonnen & BJ Penn. But he’s not the big name that stands out.

Deep Roots Medical LLC (dispensary) — Manager Branan Allison runs Source One Events, a Henderson equipment rental and event planning company for the entertainment industry. Manager Gary Primm is a casino developer who developed the Primadonna resort and and helped develop the New York New York resort. Another manager is Roger Primm, who is related to Gary and was a fellow co-owner of Primadonna Resorts. The registered agent is Las Vegas attorney Lori Rogich, wife of power broker Sig Rogich. Sig Rogich claims a 5 percent share of Deep Roots through another company, Blakely Island Holdings LLC.

One of the many projects Rogich is involved in happens to be the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic center. Guess who’s on the permit applicant list?

Integral Associates LLC (cultivation, production and dispensary) — One manager, Armen Yemenidjian, is vice president of casino operations at the Tropicana resort. Another manager is Camille Ruvo, co-founder of the Keep Memory Alive nonprofit organization that supports the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health downtown. She is the wife of Southern Wines and Spirits partner Larry Ruvo.

So the fighters are evil, bad people when they use marijuana and test positive for it. But those who have the money and are in positions of authority are more than happy to profit from the same substance they fine & suspend athletes for getting caught using.

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

11 Responses to “Nevada State Athletic Commission member applies for medical marijuana business permit”

  1. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    Best way to deal with the opposition is to be the opposition.

  2. stak says:

    Rogich is the worst. Throughout the years he’s been all anti-marijuana and anti-drugs. His firms ran campaigns against the medical marijuana movement in vegas and now that it’s passed he’s flip flopping and wants to be granted licenses. Ridiculous.

  3. Chris says:

    Ahhh Vegas. Gotta love it!

  4. rst says:

    What I think is interesting about “medical” marijuana is not only weirdo layabouts being able to finally treat the pain of not being able to legally get doped up whenever they want to, but now combining it with obamacare a doped up, lazy and controlled through addiction demographic can be charged to the national taxpayer.

    And guess what that means, not only are cities in california purchasing hospitals in preparation to make a profit from the big influx of taxpayer subsidized free healthcare,
    you can become a legal medical marijuana pusher and make your drug profits directly off the taxpayer without fighting over turf with hoodlums in the streets. Its the nu-economy.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    Nate Diaz has been removed from the UFC Rankings for refusing fights.

    Got to love how they can just arbitrarily remove fighters from the rankings without any real system in place.

    The UFC is becoming more like the WWE every day.

    • Chuck says:

      Naw, there’s a real reason why he got booted from the rankings. He hasn’t fought in over a year and doesn’t have any fights on the horizon. RING Magazine has always done that, as does just about everyone else. Really, he should be booted from any rankings until he has a fight, and wins it.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        You are thinking of Nick Diaz.

        Nate Diaz has fought 6 months ago.

        And Dominick Cruz is still ranked. He hasn’t fought in 2.5 years. Cat Zingano is still ranked. She hasn’t competed in over a year.

        I have no problem with removing fighters from the ranking after 1 year of inactivity. The UFC has no such policy.

        They are removing Diaz because of a temper tantrum on their part.

        • Diaz's cashed bowl says:

          Yeah, imagine Ring or some other fight magazine removing mayweather from the rankings for renegotiating his contract after a ko win.

          You’d wonder who’s buttering rings bread now wouldn’t you?
          I imagine a top ten ranked fighter might have a bit more bargaining power regarding his contract. But if he’s not even a ranked fighter, that lessens his bargaining power, at least in the eyes of those who rank the fighters, which in this case happens to be the ufc who said fighter is under contract with.

        • Chuck says:

          Yes, I am thinking of Nick Diaz, and I thought you were talking about Nick, but you did say Nate. My mistake. How the hell is Cruz still ranked? That’s crazy!

    • rst says:

      “Nate Diaz has been removed from the UFC Rankings…”

      Are you sure that he didn’t imagine the whole thing?

  6. Zach Arnold says:

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/gaming-board-bans-casino-licensees-medical-marijuana-trade

    Amazing — Marnell’s attempt was such a blatant conflict of interest that his attempt pissed off the gaming regulators. It is clear that he was a top focus here with today’s rebuke.

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