The historic first sale made by Clark County Commissioner and longtime advocate for cannabis, Tick Segerblom at Las Vegas’ first regulated cannabis cocktail lounge, Smoke and Mirrors Cannabis Lounge on Friday, February 23, 2024.
Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
In the seconds before the first state-regulated cannabis consumption lounge would open at Thrive Cannabis Marketplace near the Strip, Clark County Commission Tick Segerblom prepared for the occasion.
Segerblom, a lawmaker who has long advocated for the advancement of legal marijuana, held a joint in his hand while standing next to Mitch Britten, the CEO of Thrive.
When the clock on Friday hit 4:20 p.m. — a revered number among those in the cannabis culture — the two men lit up the ends of their joints and took a hit.
Smoke and Mirrors’ debut at 2875 S. Sammy Davis Jr. Drive is the first of what should be about 40 lounges to open throughout the state, giving visitors a place to legally consume cannabis — and, Clark County officials hope, take the smell of marijuana out of the air in the Resort Corridor.
Under Nevada law, it had only been legal to consume marijuana in private residences, which put visitors purchasing recreational marijuana here in an odd spot because it’s also illegal to use marijuana in hotel rooms or in public, including on the Strip.
Now, however, those visitors have access to another venue to smoke their stash legally in Nevada.
Lounges are required to be adjacent to dispensaries, making it simple for customers to purchase and consume products.
“Well, I’m just grateful I’m still alive,” Segerblom said. “Honestly, we did it in 2013 first with medical and 2017 with recreational and seven years later, the Speaker (Assemblyman Steve Yeager) brought it home to the goal line; it’s taken a long time. But thanks to these guys, we’re here, so let’s celebrate.”
It’s the second lounge in Nevada, joining Sky High Lounge, which opened in 2019 in downtown Las Vegas and is operated on sovereign tribal land and owned by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe.
The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board on Feb. 15 announced it had issued the first final license for a lounge to Smoke and Mirrors. It became the first state-regulated consumption lounge to be fully licensed, according to the board.
Thrive Cannabis Marketplace was one of 40 businesses granted a provisional license to open in November 2022 following a random-number selection event. It received a conditional lounge license in June 2023 — alongside Planet 13 and The Venue at Sol Cannabis in Washoe County — to allow it to prepare for operation.
Lounges must adhere to any local ordinances and receive approval from local jurisdictions before they can open to the public, the board said. Another 19 groups have conditional licenses and are working toward opening.
For cannabis enthusiasts, Smoke and Mirrors couldn’t have come any sooner.
Voters approved the recreational use of cannabis about eight years ago through a ballot measure during the 2016 election, and consumption lounges were legalized through Assembly Bill 341, which appeared during the 2021 Nevada Legislature through the sponsorship of Yeager, D-Las Vegas.
Yeager, who attended the opening of Smoke and Mirrors, said it was “an exciting day for Las Vegas,” which he noted had become a “test case” for many other states. He doesn’t have concerns about the cannabis consumption lounges, and foresees these lounges as the “next iteration of the cannabis marketplace,” he said.
“I’m really excited,” Yeager said. “We’re a test case, of course, but Las Vegas is used to being a test case. We know how to do things, we know how to do things right.”
Clark County pulls in about $15 million a year from taxes relating to the cannabis industry, said Segerblom, and lounges like Smoke and Mirrors will add another $3 to $4 million “just to start with.”
From July to November of 2023, the Nevada Department of Taxation recorded $259,730,216 in cannabis tax revenue from sales reported by retail stores and medical dispensaries in Clark County alone. In the previous fiscal year, which covered July 2022 to June 2023, that number was $650,098,314, according to data from the Nevada Department of Taxation.
The first cannabis lounges were expected to open in summer 2023, but a lengthy approval process and additional ordinances established by local jurisdictions added some extra hurdles for prospective lounge owners.
One of the concerns from local leaders involved public safety.
In a December 2022 Clark County Commission meeting, members approved 6-1 an ordinance to allow cannabis consumption lounges within the county. Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick was the lone dissenting vote, citing concerns about the smell of the drug and people driving while impaired when they leave businesses.
The ordinance required that those with provisional licenses for consumption lounges must submit safety plans, including protocols to deter customers from driving under the influence, and restricted businesses from selling cannabis products two hours before closing.
Britten said there was “tremendous pressure” being the first lounge fully licensed to open, and many regulatory challenges that popped up, but their regulators were “phenomenal” in helping the team complete Smoke and Mirrors.
He added his team had been working with the compliance board for around seven or eight years, and though they’re used to the process, “it’s a challenge” — especially balancing regulations that assure public safety concerns are met while not encroaching too much on businesses.
“All of us want to remove a stigma — or the stigma — involved with cannabis, and making sure places are polished and look like this is definitely going to set us apart,” Britten said.
Prior to Smoke and Mirrors, cannabis users were legallyrestricted to their private residences if they wanted to light up or snack on an infused edible. Although it’s illegal to smoke on the Strip, Kirkpatrick said she had been receiving calls from constituents complaining about the smell of public smokers.
Tourists and locals alike will now have the chance to try out cannabis-infused drinks using Sobreo cocktail mix while relaxing on plush, green couches or at high-top tables in an “intimate” environment, said Christopher LaPorte, a managing partner at RESET — a cannabis hospitality company that helped design Smoke and Mirrors.
