Nevada's cannabis industry has begun to shrink after years of growth, continuing to face stiff competition from the illicit market, according to new data released by the Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB), the state industry's regulating body.
The state's legal dispensaries logged $829 million in taxable sales in the fiscal year that ended in June, according to statistics released this month. Sales have fallen each year since peaking at just over a billion dollars in the fiscal year that ended in mid-2021.
Meanwhile, the illicit market makes $242 million to $370 million in sales annually (the exact number is difficult to pin down), representing a quarter to a third of of Nevada's total cannabis sales, according to a state-produced market analysis published in late September, the first report of its kind since the possession of cannabis was legalized at the state level in 2017.
Although medical marijuana has been legal in Nevada since 2000, it wasn't until 2016 that voters legalized the recreational use of cannabis through a ballot measure. In 2015, the first medical dispensaries began to open up and, in 2021, the Legislature authorized consumption lounges — opening the doors for what regulators contend could be a booming industry that is safer for consumers than buying from illicit sources.
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