Hundreds of people lined up in the middle of the night to be among the first to buy legal marijuana in Nevada, which became the fifth state to allow recreational sales on Saturday morning. Tourists and locals alike were in the often-long lines celebrating the first sales that came after voters in Nevada approved legalization in November.
Now anyone who is 21 and older can buy up to an ounce of marijuana in Nevada. And while tourists are expected to make up a big percentage of the customers, marijuana can only be consumed in a private home. That’s why dispensaries seem to be banking on the popularity of edibles, particularly in Las Vegas.
Getty Images
Nevada is now the fifth state—after Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska—to fully regulate and tax the recreational marijuana market. Three other states—California, Maine, and Massachusetts—also approved legalization of marijuana last year but they have yet to implement the legal sales.
Supporters of legalization say Nevada is set to take in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue on the sales. “The shows, the gambling, the drinks … now legal pot,” a 26-year-old visitor from Chicago who bought marijuana at a dispensary a block away from the Strip told the Los Angeles Times. “Who wouldn’t want to come visit?”
