So recreational marijuana has been legal in Nevada for nine months [when this question was submitted at the end of March]. How are sales and taxes doing? How many dispensaries are there in Las Vegas? What’s the biggest dispensary? What’s the best place to buy the pot products?
It’s 4/20, National Weed Day, the perfect moment to answer this question and bring QoDers up to date on the legal-pot scene hereabouts.
Statewide sales of cannabis in January 2018 (the most recent numbers available) reached $32.8 million. That was higher than the $24 million projected, but lower than December’s sales of $35.8 million.
Over the first seven months of legalization since sales began last July, cannabis consumers have spent more than $228 million statewide at dispensaries and Nevada has collected a little less than $36 million in taxes.
Retail patrons pay a 10% excise tax, which goes into the state’s rainy-day fund; the wholesale tax is 15%. What’s left of the wholesale tax after government administrative costs is channeled to Nevada schools.
There are 273 marijuana businesses in Nevada, which employ more than 6,700 people. The average wage is $19.28 per hour, more than double the state’s $8.25 minimum. And it’s a diverse workforce, with 47% minorities.
Clark County has 43 dispensaries, including Essence Cannabis that’s right on Las Vegas Blvd. S. across from the Stratosphere. Reef Dispensary is on Western Ave. a couple blocks behind the Fashion Show Mall and is open 24 hours.
The NuWu Cannabis Marketplace, at 16,000 square feet with 170 feet of display counters, is billed as not only the largest in Las Vegas, but also in the whole world. It’s owned by the Las Vegas Paiute tribe and it’s located on Paiute Circle, off N. Main Street just up from Washington Ave., on 31 acres it owns (10 of which were deeded to the tribe by Helen Stewart, First Lady of Las Vegas, in 1912).
NuWu (which means “the people”) is open 24 hours and has a 24-hour drive-thru, the first of its kind in the country.
Upwards of 20 of the 100 or so employees are Las Vegas Paiute, a tribe with 56 members. The Las Vegas Paiute also own and operate a smoke shop that’s the largest single retailer of cigarettes in the U.S.
We haven’t shopped at or even visited all the dispensaries in Las Vegas and the products don’t change that much from one to another, so we can’t say first-hand which one’s best. Still, thanks to its size, hours, drive-thru, extensive menu (which you can see online; it’s hundreds of products long), and prices that seem a little lower than usual, we’d say that in general, you can’t go wrong at NuWu.
