Nevada's Department of Taxation is reporting a staggering $1 billion from recreational marijuana.
The latest figures released by the agency show the state took in $1,003,467,655 in taxable sales last year. That's up $318 million from the previous year. The majority of sales were in Clark County (the Las Vegas and Mesquite area). $77 million in sales were from counties across the state.
Under Nevada law, some of the taxable sales are earmarked for public education. This year, $159 million was put into Nevada's Distributive School Account.
The Nevada Dispensary Association, which represents cannabis retailers across the state, noted that the record-breaking sales came about in a pandemic and with an industry that got no COVID-relief funds because marijuana remains illegal on a federal level.
"The record-breaking amount of tax revenue generated by the cannabis industry for education is really something to celebrate," Layke Martin, executive director of the Nevada Dispensary Association, said in a statement. "Retailers, cultivators, producers, and businesses up and down the supply chain, as well as the thousands of employees in the industry, should all be proud of the hard work and innovation that helped the industry bounce back from a challenging year."
Nevada voters legalized recreational marijuana sales in 2016. West Wendover, the nearest community with a cannabis dispensary, has also reported an increase in tax revenue since it allowed marijuana sales.
Utah voters legalized medical cannabis in 2018. Like a lot of things that are legal in Nevada, recreational cannabis is illegal in Utah.
