If Nevada votes to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016 — which many on both sides of the legalization fence think is an inevitability — some industry experts foresee a legal cannabis economy that will feature 420-friendly poker rooms and on-strip hotel weed delivery services.
With Las Vegas leading the state’s pot tourism thrust — the city sees more than 40 million visitors annually — some in the cannabis industry wonder if Nevada will steal all of the marijuana tourist-oriented momentum from Colorado, Washington and other states.
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“It’s going to detract from Colorado at some point,” Freddie Wyatt, president of cannabis event group Munch and Company, said on The Cannabist Show (above). “But I think that Colorado is so far ahead of everybody else, and we’ve looked at other markets and been all around the United States with this, and we (in Colorado) are still just leading the charge. It’s going to take quite a while for anybody to catch up.”
Wanda James, president of the Cannabis Global Initiative, agreed with Wyatt that Colorado and other states will have a head-start, and something else to offer: “Not everybody likes Vegas … Colorado still has that outdoorsy feel that’s always going to attract those people who really love that type of atmosphere and can have an edible on a mountaintop.”
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