Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Report: Bigger purchases, more people skipping work on pot holiday

NuLeaf

John Locher / AP

In this June 30, 2017, photo, Bryce Tallitsch hangs up a sign for recreational marijuana at the NuLeaf dispensary in Las Vegas.

Evergreen Organix Kitchen Tour

Samples (prepared without marijuana) are displayed during a tour of the Evergreen Organix kitchen Thursday, April 19, 2018. Evergreen Organix is a local marijuana edibles producer. Launch slideshow »

The 420 marijuana holiday today will feature more money spent at pot dispensaries and a higher number of the plant’s users missing work, according to a report published this week.

A survey of 1,000 American adults likely to consume marijuana on 420 revealed the average customer is budgeting $146 for marijuana purchases, according to financial website LendEDU. That figure includes actual pot products as well as paraphernalia and ‘munchies’ to satisfy an increase in appetite caused by consuming the plant.

The poll also found 35 percent of employed 420 participants plan to take off work for the weed holiday.

“Marijuana is becoming more mainstream and commercial, making this holiday even more popular than years’ past,” said Mike Brown, a research analyst with LendEDU.

Brown, whose company collaborated with polling site Pollfish to produce the report, said Las Vegas customers will likely spend less than the numbers published in the survey, due to Nevada’s ‘significantly’ less expensive prices on the legal plant.

The poll’s numbers fall in line with figures published by Colorado-based pot research firm BDS Analytics — who said April 20 sales are traditionally 220 percent higher than average-day sales for legal marijuana dispensaries. A 2016 Headset Inc. study of over 40,000 marijuana buyers in Washington found the average customer spends between $27 and $64 when legally shopping for marijuana.

Andrew Jolley, president of the Nevada Dispensary Association, said he expects all of Nevada’s 62 operating dispensaries to experience a sales boom. Jolley, who also owns The+Source dispensaries in Las Vegas and Henderson, said Friday’s sales figures could exceed the 24-hour totals of the first day of recreational sales on July 1.

Over a dozen dispensaries and venues across the Las Vegas Valley are hosting 420 celebrations, featuring music and prizes, to commemorate the first pot holiday with legal recreational weed sales in Nevada.