Question of the Day - 31 May 2018

The marijuana subculture in Nevada is newly respectable and it's the opinion of the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau that marijuana lounges would not be illegal under Nevada Revised Statute 435-D. 

Marijuana lounges have been proposed in Clark County, but the county commissioners aren't exactly eager to take action, lest it pose a risk to Nevada’s gaming-tourism complex or spur a crackdown by higher authorities (the state and feds). They're watching Denver, where vaping, dabbing, and consuming cannabis-laced edibles is legal in lounges, to see what, if anything, happens there.

Nevada pot businesspeople advocate for lounges, where visitors who purchase recreational marijuana here wold have a legal place to consume it. Why, they wonder, can't lounges simply be attached to dispensaries? It's an easy solution. 

State Sen. Tick Segerblom (D), marijuana’s point man in Carson City, introduced a bill last session to explicitly give local governments the power to regulate pot lounges, but it died in the Legislature. Segerblom will presumably try again during the 2019 legislative session. 

So you'll probably be aware of marijuana fumes around town at least until 2019. 

As for pot's impact, we believe it's still a little early to assess just how much of a boon legal pot has been to Las Vegas' tourism industry. For example, during the first six months of recreational marijuana sales in Nevada (July 1 through December 31, 2017), sales reached $195 million, nearly doubling those of Colorado’s $114 million in its first six months (2014). However, that was before California's legal pot sales started in early 2018. We've also seen projections that by the end of this year, two-thirds of recreational marijuana users in Las Vegas will be tourists. But how many of those would have come anyway without legal cannabis? Like we say, the jury's out on this question. 

But this question also inspired our next poll, a preview of which appeared in yesterday's QoD. In a few weeks, we'll have at least a little better idea from readers and respondents. Stay tuned.