The annual Marijuana Business Conference in Las Vegas, running through Friday at the Rio, is in many ways a metaphor for the burgeoning legal cannabis industry.
At last year’s #MJBizCon …
NEW: Get podcasts of The Cannabist Show.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Watch The Cannabist Show.
On one hand, it’s a professional, suit-and-tie business conference — with important meetings, industry-reshaping deals and big announcements on deck. On the other, it’s a friggin’ party — with sponsored parties, sponsored afterparties and unofficial after-afterparties with legal cannabis CEOs and their staffs smoking, vaporizing and eating pot all over the Strip and hashtagging their photos “#whathappensinvegas.”
We spent some time on Instagram this morning to see what’s happening (but not necessarily staying) in Vegas, and it looks like there’s already plenty of business and partying going down. But one photo stood out — and the vaguely political shot involved some Colorado activists and ganjapreneurs getting high at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.
“It’s funny that #TheDonald hates cannabis so much,” wrote Colorado Cannabis Tours’ Heidi Keyes on Instagram, “because we loved smoking it in his hotel.”
Presidential candidate Donald Trump was in Nevada two weeks ago when he softened his stance on marijuana legalization, saying that it “should be a state issue.”
With Keyes in the photo is her Colorado Cannabis Tours colleagues Michael Eymer and Stacey Mulvey and Your Driving Force public relations chief Brittany Driver (who also writes for The Cannabist).
Medical marijuana is legal in Nevada, and the state will most likely vote on recreational legalization in 2016. Public consumption isn’t legal in Vegas, but a quick look at the #MJBizCon hashtag on Insta will show you that there’s plenty of weed — originating from a number of states — being flaunted around Sin City this weekend.
Political activist Ralph Nader will keynote the Marijuana Business Conference this morning.
