Item 9 Labs is growing!

As you may have heard, Item 9 Labs is expanding our offerings of the highest quality cannabis solutions into the Silver State. Watch out, Nevada—soon you will be legendary for more than just gambling.

Here we survey the general lay of the land in our second home, so you, our much-loved consumers, know what to expect:

Nevada, long known for luxury, vice, and excess became the 5^th state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use in July of 2017. Since then, parts of the state have embraced cannabis culture with open arms.

Unsurprisingly, Las Vegas has led the charge. The city opened the nation’s first pot museum – the Cannabition Cannabis Museum – replete with more than 20 immersive exhibits, including Hunter S. Thompson’s iconic red convertible from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You can also get married in a Cannabis Chapel, a pot-friendly chapel that performs cannabis-themed “weeding” ceremonies and vow renewals. Several companies offer dispensary tours, and one venue hosts a hands-on, bring-your-own cannabis painting class. The city is also home to several 24-hour mega dispensaries, such as the $7.5 million “theme park for marijuana,” a prime example of Las Vegas’ increasingly high-end marijuana culture.

Despite the industry’s booming growth in Nevada, marijuana policy in the state is as sticky as elsewhere in the country. Although you can buy cannabis products almost anywhere, they can be consumed almost nowhere. At the moment, it is illegal to consume any weed products outside of private residences that have given explicit permission. This means that tourists visiting Nevada will be hard-pressed to keep their consumption above-board. Hotel rooms, Ubers, Casinos, parks and even the dispensary you purchased it from are off-limits.

The good news is there is a steady push to change this. Nevada lawmakers last month took a much-publicized tour of San Francisco’s weed lounges for inspiration. Following the visit, Democratic State Senator Tick Segerblom said cannabis consumption lounges could open in Clark County (which includes the Las Vegas Strip and the majority of Southern Nevada) just months after his term starts in January. “The goal is to get these pot lounges up and running, get marijuana out of our casinos and hotels, and get it off the streets.” He also remarked that he expects the new pot lounges to be even bigger than the city’s current mega dispensaries and entertainment complexes. “We can start small,” he said. “But we don’t have to.”

As Las Vegas is a national leader in indulgence, we expect that the entrance of cannabis culture into the city’s landscape will be no exception. In a city known for decadence, it is no shock that offerings in the city cater to the growing high-end marijuana market – with dispensaries opting for flashy, sleek aesthetics and an array of offerings for those with unlimited budgets.

All of this illustrates the changing face of the modern cannabis user. As more states have legalized, public opinion has shifted. Marijuana use has become much more widespread and normalized, and has expanded to reach new demographics. Far from the hippie stereotypes of old, weed culture is becoming increasingly luxurious, refined and even part of an aspirational lifestyle. We won’t be a bit surprised if rich, young tech moguls fly in on private jets to spend the day in Nevada’s soon-coming cannabis lounges.