Las Vegas dispensaries: 8 licensed shops, downtown to the Strip

Two local governments license the stores a visitor is likely to use. Inside city limits, a store needs a city business license under Chapter 6.95 of the Las Vegas Municipal Code, and the city accepts an application only with proof of Cannabis Compliance Board approval and a special use permit from its Planning Department, or one in process. On the Strip and across unincorporated Clark County, the county's Department of Business License issues the license under Clark County Code Chapters 8.60 and 8.65, after a CCB license and zoning approval from the Department of Comprehensive Planning, which may require a special use permit of its own. Product rules, ID checks and purchase limits come from the state.

Both governments charge the store rather than the shopper. Clark County's 2022 renewal letter, summarizing Clark County Code 8.60 and 8.65, lists a quarterly fee on each cannabis store's gross revenue: 1 percent up to $150,000 in a quarter, 2 percent of revenue above $150,000 and 3 percent of revenue above $400,000, with state sales and excise taxes left out of the base. The city's licensing guidelines, in effect since 1 Mar 2021, tell stores that city licensing fees may not be passed on to customers or listed on the receipt.

Local rules also shape when and how you can buy. State rules let a store sell only during the hours it gave the CCB in its application and its local government authorizes, posted where customers walk in (NCCR 7.010, now NAC 678B.300), and stores in both jurisdictions stay open late: five of the eight on this page say they are open 24 hours. Since 4 Dec 2020 Clark County has let stores in unincorporated areas sell through a drive-through window once the CCB, the planning department and Business License approve it, and Planet 13 runs one for orders placed ahead.

The two governments have treated on-site use differently. The City of Las Vegas passed an ordinance in 2019 for licensed Social Use Venues, now Chapter 6.96 of its code, but its licensing page still says such venues are not legal until state law allows them, and none of the three lounges on the CCB's list is inside city limits. Before lounges existed, the city, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Clark County and the Nevada Transportation Authority warned businesses in a joint notice from August 2017 that public consumption is unlawful, including on tour buses, limousines and other common carriers, and that a licensed business promoting it risked its license.

Two taxes show up at the register, and they are the same in the city and on the Strip. Nevada's 10 percent retail excise tax applies to the sales price of adult-use cannabis, not counting the sales tax, and the store may recover it from the buyer, according to the Department of Taxation. Sales tax is then added at Clark County's rate of 8.375 percent, which the department's rate map applies to the whole county.

A third tax is not charged to shoppers at all: the 15 percent excise on the first wholesale sale is the responsibility of the cultivation facility. Medical cardholders do not pay the 10 percent retail excise, and the department's FAQ extends that to patients authorized under the law of their home state. Local license fees, Clark County's quarterly share of gross revenue and the city's own fees, are owed by the business, and the city's guidelines bar stores from passing its fee to customers.

Only on private property whose owner permits it, or inside a licensed consumption lounge. Using cannabis in a store, in a vehicle or in any public place is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of no more than $600 (NRS 678D.310), and possession discovered because someone used cannabis in a public place, a place open to the public or a spot exposed to public view loses its protection from prosecution (NRS 678D.300). The CCB's summary for consumers says the same: not in any public place, not in a moving vehicle even as a passenger, on private property only if the owner has not banned it, and at a licensed lounge.

That rules out most of the places visitors spend their time. The Strip's sidewalks are public, and so are the pedestrian bridges over Las Vegas Boulevard, which Clark County Public Works designed and built to move visitors across the Resort Corridor. Downtown, the Fremont Street Experience canopy covers a pedestrian mall the city created under Chapter 11.68 of its code, operated by The Fremont Street Experience LLC and open to the public, so the state ban applies under the canopy too. The city's cannabis FAQ lists parks, sporting events, concerts, festivals, casinos, hotels and walking down the street among the places cannabis may not be used.

Hotel rooms are private property, and Nevada lets whoever owns or controls private property ban or restrict cannabis smoking there (NRS 678D.510). The three Las Vegas hotels whose policies we read all do. The STRAT, inside city limits, does not allow recreational marijuana in its rooms, casino or public spaces; Virgin Hotels Las Vegas prohibits it in any form, guest rooms included; and the Ahern Hotel bans it anywhere on the property. The Clean Indoor Air Act still lets people smoke in casino areas closed to minors (NRS 202.2483), but that is a smoking-law exemption, and the cannabis statute separately bans use in any public place.

Gaming regulators explain why resorts hold the line. In Notice 2014-39, dated 6 May 2014, the Gaming Control Board said that unless federal law changed, a licensee's investment or other role in a medical marijuana establishment would not fit the effective regulation of gaming, and on 5 Mar 2018 the Gaming Policy Committee resolved that licensees shall not participate in the marijuana industry. Nor can you have cannabis brought to a resort: state rules bar store deliveries to any address holding a gaming license (NAC 678B.327), and Planet 13's delivery page says it serves residential addresses only, never hotels or casinos.

Yes, three, and all are in unincorporated Clark County rather than the City of Las Vegas. The CCB's list of licensees, current as of 1 Sep 2026, names Dazed! at 2548 W Desert Inn Rd and Society at 4640 Paradise Rd, Suite 8-9, both in Paradise by the Census geocoder, and Smoke and Mirrors at 2975 Sammy Davis Jr Dr, which falls in Winchester by the Census coordinates of the CCB's map pin. Each is tied to a store: the CCB's workbook licenses Dazed! to MM Development Company, the Planet 13 licensee; Society to TGIG LLC, which holds The Grove's store license; and Smoke and Mirrors to the licensee of Thrive's Strip store at the same address.

A lounge is not a store with seats. The CCB describes it as a business licensed to sell single-use and ready-to-consume products that are then used in the lounge, and its FAQ says no alcohol is sold or consumed there. Dazed!'s house rules say everything consumed inside must be bought in the lounge, that products from the Planet 13 sales floor may not be brought in, and that outside cannabis, alcohol, nicotine and tobacco are not allowed; every guest must be 21 or older with valid photo ID. Nevada's indoor smoking law makes room for all this by stating that smoking cannabis in a consumption lounge is not prohibited (NRS 202.2483).

Hours differ by lounge. Dazed! lists noon to midnight Monday to Wednesday, 11 am to midnight on Thursday and 11 am to 1 am Friday to Sunday. Smoke and Mirrors lists 4 pm to midnight on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday and noon to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and is closed Monday and Tuesday. Society Elevated Lounge, which connects to The Grove's store, lists 3 pm to 11 pm daily on its own page, though its FAQ calls the hours subject to change, so check before you go.

The lounges are new. The CCB issued 40 prospective lounge licenses on 30 Nov 2022, under a program the Legislature authorized in 2021 with Assembly Bill 341, and on 20 Jun 2023 it approved the first three conditional licenses, two of them to the companies behind Planet 13 and Thrive, both in unincorporated Clark County. No lounge inside city limits appears on the CCB's list under the city's 2019 Social Use Venue ordinance.

No to both. Clark County Code 20.04.090, which county commissioners passed as Ordinance 4513 on 5 Sep 2017, bars possessing, using, showing, handing over, selling, carrying or growing marijuana on any county airport or Department of Aviation property, with terminals, parking, ground transportation facilities and roadways named, and a violation can bring a misdemeanor charge, civil fines or both. Harry Reid International, then called McCarran, is the first airport the ordinance lists. TSA screeners do not look for drugs, the agency says, but they hand anything illegal they come across to a law enforcement officer.

Driving it home is no better: the city's cannabis FAQ says carrying cannabis across state lines is illegal because it is still illegal under federal law. Federal land within a day trip is off limits too. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which the Bureau of Land Management says lies 17 miles west of the Strip, is public land where BLM rules prohibit possessing a controlled substance except as the rule allows (43 CFR 8365.1-4). Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a National Park Service unit, and its laws page says Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations applies to all park areas; that title bans possessing a controlled substance (36 CFR 2.35), and the CCB's guidance says cannabis is still illegal on federal land, national parks included.

Bring ID a Nevada store must accept: an unexpired U.S. driver's license or state ID, a U.S. military ID or a passport issued or recognized by the U.S. government, among the forms NAC 678B.306 lists. Planet 13's FAQ says it takes foreign passports and Canadian driver's licenses but not most other foreign licenses or ID cards, and it names the Mexican driver's license and voter card as not accepted. An expired U.S. license works only if it lapsed less than two years ago and you show a second document such as a birth certificate, per the CCB's FAQ.

Check that the store is licensed. The CCB publishes its list of active licensees with each store's address and license number, says licensed stores must conspicuously post their state cannabis establishment license and business license, and warns that only licensed dispensaries may sell or deliver cannabis. Several stores take only cash or debit, so carry some cash.

Decide where you will use it before you buy. The resorts whose policies we read ban it, the Strip and Fremont Street are public places, and the only legal shared spaces are the three lounges, where you buy on site. Finish or leave behind what you have before you reach the airport, because possession anywhere on Harry Reid property, its garages included, breaks Clark County Code 20.04.090.