Nevada’s economic woes and tourism declines during 2025 may have contributed to a nearly 9 percent drop in sales by the state’s legal cannabis industry in the last fiscal year.

James Humm, executive director of the Cannabis Compliance Board, added Friday that another reason for the trend could be that more than 30 states have legalized some version of marijuana sales and consumption, and Nevada’s “newness or the novelty” may have subsided.

“I don’t have hard data [but] anecdotally, we know any swings in tourism tend to impact sales for all of our casinos and tangential businesses,” Humm told The Nevada Independent. 

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, tourism in Southern Nevada fell 7.5 percent in 2025 and was down 7.3 percent through June, which covered the last six months of the fiscal year.

Humm added that next month’s industry workshops, which will focus in part on changes to Nevada’s cannabis regulations made in the 2025 Legislature, could provide some suggestions for boosting sales, which fell to $757.7 million statewide in the 12 months that ended June 30. 

Dispensaries in Clark County accounted for $567.6 million in sales, or 75 percent of all cannabis revenue. Washoe County dispensaries saw a 7 percent decline to $105.7 million, while sales in all other counties dropped 4 percent to $84.3 million.

The decline in statewide sales led to a combined 7 percent drop in wholesale and retail excise taxes in Nevada, which led to a 9 percent decrease, or $95.8 million, in the tax revenue transferred to the State Education Fund.

Humm said the state’s Department of Taxation is providing an economist to help advise the committee on potential changes.

“We have members from the industry, as well as other economists from the state, who are going to lead the charge,” Humm said. “We really want to look down into the numbers to see if there are any changes we need to make to the taxes, or if we need to streamline them.”

Riana Durrett, director of UNLV’s Cannabis Policy Institute, said in an email that there was a sentiment in 2016 when voters passed the ballot referendum legalizing cannabis sales that the business would be a big revenue generator, given the state’s tourist market. 

“Since then, Nevada has passed laws that indirectly limit access to licensed sales, likely promoting unlicensed sales,” Durrett said. “It would benefit the industry and state revenue if legally regulated sales were made more accessible to tourists.”

UNLV’s institute is planning to publish a new economic overview of the Nevada market later this year, which could provide insight into whether sales of cannabis are going down or the prices are decreasing. 

Durrett said a price decrease would be considered a more natural progression. But if overall sales drop, then it would mean consumers are returning to the illegal cannabis market.

“Nevada severely restricts access to legal cannabis to tourists,” Durrett said. “There are measures that can be taken to increase tax revenue while still keeping public health and safety as a top priority.”

Nevada cannabis regulators have made efforts to stem the illegal market. 

The board launched a billboard campaign last May, encouraging locals and tourists to purchase cannabis products from licensed dispensaries, as opposed to the illegal market, and a bill was introduced (but died) in the 2025 legislative session to mandate daily room cleaning in hotels and casinos to address the illicit cannabis market.

The sales and taxation figures do not include the Sky High consumption lounge and NuWu Cannabis Marketplace near downtown, which are operated by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. The location is on tribal land, and the Paiutes have their own regulatory board that oversees the facility through a compact with Nevada. The businesses are not under the cannabis board’s jurisdiction.

Nevada had more than 108 retail locations as of January, including 76 in Clark County and 17 in Washoe County. There is one medical cannabis dispensary, which is in Churchill County.

The state has just one operating consumption lounge, Dazed!, which is inside the Planet 13 Dispensary complex near the Strip. Smoke and Mirrors, which opened in February 2024 inside the Thrive Cannabis Dispensary on Sammy Davis Jr. Drive west of the Strip, closed after 14 months of operation. 

Humm said there are at least a half-dozen potential consumption locations that have been approved by the board, but are awaiting final inspections.