Legal Consumption Coming to Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Review Journal

Las Vegas has legal cannabis, but while the law seems straightforward, there’s a major catch.

“A person who is 21 years of age or older is allowed to possess and consume retail marijuana. A marijuana consumer may possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana or 1/8 of an ounce of concentrated marijuana. Marijuana can only be purchased legally from state-licensed retail marijuana stores,” the law states.

The problem — and it’s a big one — is that it’s not legal to smoke marijuana anywhere in Las Vegas except for a private residence. No hotel allows guests to smoke marijuana and there are no legal consumption lounges.

That has pushed consumption onto the Strip, into parking lots, and really pretty much everywhere outside around the city. Police aren’t going to arrest you for lighting up, but having legal pot without a legal place to smoke it is not ideal.

That’s going to change in the coming year.

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Wynn rolls dice on Las Vegas eateries, Encore stays closed

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A fisherman cast his line in the Mystic River in front of the Encore. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Mass Gaming Commission praises resort on new misconduct policies


By JOSH RESNEK

In Las Vegas, a group of restaurants owned by Wynn Resorts is reopening this week with restrictions, a sure sign that some sense of normalcy is returning to the Strip.

Who and how many people will come to the restaurants are big questions as many of them cater to the millions of visitors that come to the desert for relaxation and fun.

Also, key are the business meetings and conventions held in Las Vegas which fill the restaurants with attendees, none of which will be happening any time soon – not at least until the end of the summer or later, according to reports in the Las Vegas Sun published this weekend.

Much of the news and the speculation is the same for Encore Boston Harbor in Everett which has been closed since mid-March.

Encore and MGC officials have been communicating but no date for reopening has yet been discussed or set.

In the meantime, the MGC gave Encore and Wynn officials a mostly glowing report as it evaluated the operator’s efforts and policies to limit sexual misconduct at the Encore property in Everett and throughout the company.

This came as a result of the law firm Miller & Chevalier’s 127-page report being reviewed by the MGC at last week’s meeting. Miller & Chevalier lawyers spent close to three hours detailing the results of its report on the monitoring of Wynn CEO Matt Maddox and his team.

That report and its finding are partly the result of the $35 MGC million fine Wynn Resorts was forced to pay to get its license and further stipulations for the company to change its culture which the MGC insisted upon.

The effort was intended to end the company’s complicity in covering up sexual misconduct allegations against founder and former chairman and CEO Steve Wynn.

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