LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For those who celebrate, Thursday is a holiday commonly known as "4/20."
The celebration of cannabis stems from secret meetings conducted by California teenagers in the early 70s, where they would smoke marijuana outside their high school in San Rafael, California.
The group agreed to convene at 4:20 p.m. — a numerical code that has since blossomed into a holiday within cannabis culture.
In Las Vegas, cannabis has grown into a billion-dollar industry and has transformed the valley into a destination site for tourists.
“We are seeing cannabis as an experience, as a sharing component with the community, and as a good deal,” said Bri Padilla, executive director of the Cannabis Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas. “We’re really seeing it bring tourists and locals out.”
In 2022, the marijuana industry generated more than $965 million in taxable sales in Nevada, making it one of the few industries that thrived through the pandemic.
While sales saw a 3% decrease from its 2021 revenue income, dispensaries, growing facilities and other businesses associated with the marijuana industry have continued to grow in the valley in recent years.
The Las Vegas Cannabis Chamber of Commerce was established during the pandemic, making it one of the first and foremost organizations to further legalize and destigmatize cannabis culture.
The non-profit was created to support the growth and development of businesses that serve the regulated industry by instituting a network that provides local resources.
One of their main initiatives is SB277, a bill proposed to revise certain restrictions on sales of cannabis, eliminating provisions related to excluded felony offenses, requiring the Cannabis Advisory Commission to conduct a study concerning certain matters relating to the scheduling of cannabis, and revising other matters related to the cannabis sales.
In its annual jobs report recently released, Vangst, the leading cannabis industry jobs platform, found there are 417,493 full-time jobs supported by the legal cannabis industry in the United States.
At the end of last year, the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board issued 40 cannabis consumption lounge prospective licenses. Several consumption lounges will begin sprouting up by the summer of 2023.
