Las Vegas sets its glittery cannabis sights on becoming “Amsterdam on Steroids”

Walking into Planet 13 Las Vegas Dispensary, about a kilometre west of the famed Las Vegas Strip, feels like a stroll into an adult playground. The massive, 16,000 sq. ft. cannabis superstore welcomes shoppers with a dozen five-metre high, light-up lotus flowers, a motion-sensor LED light floor and German-designed orbs that float around the ceiling.

 

 

Outside, three giant sensors detect the direction of a laser remote control, allowing users to “spray” removable graffiti images from as far as 30 metres away onto a 60-metre wide white wall.

The hefty price tag for the custom-made amenities? Over $5 million, reports Brandon Garcia, a spokesman for Planet 13.

And that’s not even including cannabis.

With more than 800 cannabis products for sale—including more than 100 different flower strains and pre-rolls, nine dozen vaping products and 80 different concentrates—sourced from 90 percent of Nevada’s 150-plus combined producers and cultivators, Planet 13’s inventory is among the largest in the U.S.

Just five miles north of Planet 13, on tribal land near downtown Las Vegas, NuWu Cannabis Marketplace boasts a similarly behemoth retail store, where almost 3,000 customers pass through the doors of the 15,500 sq. ft. storefront or a 24-hour drive-thru each day. Owned and operated by the Las Vegas Paiute tribe, NuWu has sold a US$11,000 cannabis cigar, made the first U.S.-based advertising partnership with a professional sports franchise—the Las Vegas Lights—and, just this past November, hosted a segment for Jimmy Kimmel Live since opening in October 2017.

The Paiutes, whose 12.5-hectare plot of land a couple of kilometres from where 18 million tourists visit downtown Las Vegas each year, has also attracted cannabis-seeking VIP clients from the strip.

 

Stepping up hype, pizzazz and hospitality

Despite efforts to mimic Amsterdam’s style of extravagant cannabis venues, Nevada state officials want to ensure Las Vegas doesn’t turn into the wild, wild west of pot

The two entertainment-based mega cannabis complexes in Las Vegas are just the first steps in the city’s goal to become “Amsterdam on Steroids.”

First coined by Tick Segerblom—a former Nevada senator who spearheaded legislation to develop the state’s legal cannabis industry—the process has been in the works since recreational cannabis sales launched on July 1, 2017. In a city built on hype, pizzazz and hospitality, having the world’s two largest standalone cannabis retail facilities by square footage represents “a good start,” Segerblom points out.

While Las Vegas wants to mimic Amsterdam’s style of extravagant cannabis venues and permissibility for open consumption, state officials have worked to ensure the city doesn’t turn into the wild, wild west of pot.

Ballot Question 2, approved by Nevada voters in the 2016 election to legalize cannabis, mandates restrictions on how many store licences individual counties across the state can receive. Nevada’s stringent testing standards for products sold at legal dispensaries—which includes mandatory screening for 24 pesticides, five microbials, common mycotoxins and heavy metals—is regarded as the most thorough in the U.S. and, hopefully, helps achieve a “gold standard” for how state officials want outsiders to view its legal cannabis policy.

Legal consumption areas, the biggest hurdle still remaining, has not been without its share of legislative hiccups. Proposed as early as 2017 by the Las Vegas City Council and Clark County Commission ordinances were stalled in January 2018, when then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era protections for legal marijuana states.

After Sessions was ousted on Nov, 7, Segerblom two weeks later led a group of seven Nevada legislators to San Francisco for a fact-finding trip through two of the California city’s cannabis consumption lounges, where the one-room spots could be used only by dispensary customers, with clients limited to 30 minutes before being hit with an admission charge.

Though impressed, the Nevada senator said Vegas had bigger ideas in mind. “We don’t have to start small like this.”

The Paiutes may have the answer. The tribe has plans for a nightclub-style cannabis consumption venue with a pool and VIP seating on a vacant patch of land next to NuWu. Tribal spokesman Kevin Clock reports the Paiutes are waiting for local ordinances to pass before beginning construction.

Per state law and the proposed local ordinances, licensing the lounges at the local level will allow them to be standalone facilities, where owners can charge cover fees and allow customers to bring inside marijuana from any licensed dispensary in town.

A municipal recommending committee is expected to revise an 11-page ordinance draft for legal consumption lounges Feb. 18, which, if approved and forwarded to city council for a vote, the facilities could be open by late March or April, says Councilman Bob Coffin.

Clark County officials—whose jurisdiction includes the strip—have put together a 12-member advisory panel on cannabis, featuring executives from local cannabis, gaming and law enforcement organizations, to recommend a policy to the county commission by July. If an ordinance is drafted and approved by the commissions, lounges on Sin City’s strip could open as early as the fall.

Time will tell whether Amsterdam can keep up.

 

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