This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Nevada could raise more than $1bn in the first seven years of recreational marijuana sales, according to an economic analysis released by an industry group on Friday.

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Pot-friendly policies, strict “seed-to-sale” regulations and the prospect of doing business with some of the 45 million tourists who visit Las Vegas and Reno each year could make Nevada one of the nation’s largest marijuana marketplaces, said Andrew Jolley, president of the Nevada Dispensary Association.

Jolley acknowledged that California, which began recreational pot sales this year, is expected to dominate the industry in size and scale. But John Restrepo, principal analyst at Las Vegas-based RCG Economics, which produced the analysis, said: “Nevada will be a very important market and should be a leader in regulations.”

The 33-page report considered the period since legal pot sales started on 1 July 2017 and was made public weeks after state officials reported first-year taxable pot sales at almost $530m, exceeding expectations by 40%.

Nevada received just under $70m in tax revenues on that figure, including $27.5m for schools and about $42.5m for a state “rainy day” contingency fund.

Nevada is among nine states and Washington DC that have legalized recreational marijuana. Sales got off to a rocky start amid a legal battle over distribution licenses, and tourists still do not have a place to legally smoke the pot they can buy. Hotels do not allow smoking in rooms and laws regulating marijuana lounges have not been approved.

Smoking is not allowed in a Las Vegas museum, Cannabition, that recently opened and features a glass bong taller than a two-story building.

Democratic state senator Tick Segerblom, the legislative godfather of Nevada’s marijuana law, said on Friday lawmakers should allow pot-centered venues ranging from spas to yoga studios to concerts and festivals.

“You can’t encourage people to come to Nevada to buy marijuana and then say, ‘Oh by the way, you can’t use it here,”’ he told the dispensary association.

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The economic report said 64 retail dispensaries are now open statewide, with more than half in Las Vegas. The 40 businesses that participated in a survey for the report employed about 1,300 people. The report projected more than 8,000 jobs in the industry in the next six years.

It did not look at public safety, health, human services, schools or criminal justice costs associated with legalization.

In Washington state, where voters legalized pot in 2012, a 2017 report examined two years of data and found no evidence that recreational sales affected cannabis abuse treatment admissions. It found that adults 21 and older were “significantly” more likely to report heavy cannabis use in parts of the state with high per-capita sales.

In Nevada, the report said marijuana cultivation and production is centered in and around Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Pahrump. It said 99 of 120 licensed marijuana farms and 69 of 83 processing sites are in Clark and Nye counties.