{"id":7949,"date":"2017-12-22T13:02:05","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=6977"},"modified":"2017-12-22T13:02:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:02:05","slug":"nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Nevada\u2019s 273 Marijuana Businesses Employ 6,700 Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Some surprising new numbers are out about the Silver State&#8217;s marijuana industry.<\/p>\n<p>The Nevada Dispensary Association surveyed it&#8217;s members and now we&#8217;re getting a better picture of how big the industry is beyond just looking at sales and tax revenues.<\/p>\n<p>State lawmakers from across the U.S. are in Las Vegas for the annual Council of State Governments convention at Mandalay Bay.<\/p>\n<p>The focus of one large session Thursday was how to develop marijuana policies. Based on some of the new statistics about Nevada&#8217;s industry, we&#8217;re proving to be a model state.<\/p>\n<p>Nevada has come a long way since medical marijuana sales began in July 2015. Currently, there are 273 marijuana businesses in Nevada employing over 6,700 people.<\/p>\n<p>With sales and tax revenue exceeding projections, it appears the cannabis industry is here to stay.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are a lot of taxes coming into the state, but we&#8217;re also seeing there are extremely high regulatory costs and operational costs,&#8221; said Riana Durrett, exec. director, Nevada Dispensary Association.<\/p>\n<p>Durrett says while a lot of money is coming into businesses, it&#8217;s also being paid out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t a market where people are making money hand over fist like people from the outside think that they are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As a whole, the industry spends about $1.8 million on security each month. Utilities comes out to nearly $1.3 million.<\/p>\n<p>But the biggest cost, as in many businesses, is employees. The average wage is $19.28 an hour, more than double the state&#8217;s $8.25 an hour minimum wage. And it&#8217;s a diverse workforce &#8212; about 47 percent minority and 53 percent non-minority.<\/p>\n<p>Durrett presented the numbers in front of lawmakers from other states like Maine state Senator Roger Katz who are looking for guidance as voters legalize marijuana in more states.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nevada is different from Maine in many, many ways, but the issues about legalization of marijuana, they&#8217;re really the same,&#8221; said Sen. Katz.<\/p>\n<p>He sees events like this as an opportunity for states to get out ahead of the any movement on marijuana policy on the federal level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This opportunity to talk among our colleagues really does demonstrate that the states are the 50 labs of the country,&#8221; Sen. Katz said.<\/p>\n<p>Las Vegas is hosting this conference this year because state Senator Kelvin Atkinson is the chairman of the Council of State Governments.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Brian Sandoval will be delivering a keynote address Friday.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Ron Strider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasvegasnow.com\/news\/nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers\/881373185\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nevada&#8217;s 273 marijuana businesses employ 6,700 workers | KLAS-TV<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Patrick Walker<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasvegasnow.com\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Contact Us | LasVegasNow | KLAS-TV<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Scott Sonner<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasvegasnow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Home | LasVegasNow | KLAS-TV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some surprising new numbers are out about the Silver State&#8217;s marijuana industry.<br \/>\nThe Nevada Dispensary Association surveyed it&#8217;s members and&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2017\/12\/nevadas-273-marijuana-businesses-employ-6700-workers\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1597,9,1,3],"tags":[4165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}