LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Tax revenue from cannabis sales across Nevada dropped almost 9% in 2025, according to newly released numbers from the Cannabis Compliance Board.
Taxable sales for 2025 generated $757.7 million, a decline from $829.2 million in 2024.
The CCB decline in dispensary and lounge sales translates into less money for schools: state law requires 10% of excise tax revenue to go to education. The State Education Fund received almost $96 million in 2025, a decline from $107.9 million in 2024.
Sales have been on a general decline since the pandemic, as more states legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana. However, the Nevada Cannabis Association points to a major threat to revenue: unlicensed sales.
A study by the Cannabis Compliance Board shows up to a quarter of marijuana sales in Nevada are illegal, cutting into tax revenue from licensed dispensaries and lounges.
The CCB encourages customers to find legal sellers and visit the full list of active Nevada Cannabis Licensees and operators on its website.
FOX5 has reported on a problem across the Las Vegas Valley and tourist areas: stores sell “counterfeit cannabis” and deceptively market themselves as dispensaries. Dispensaries and marijuana sales are not allowed along the Strip corridor.
Assembly Bill 504 helps address the issue.
“Our authority does not cover that for us to go in there and actually seize the product, but with AB 504, they’re going to have to start posting signs outside of their shops indicating that they are not licensed to sell cannabis,” said James Humm, executive director of the Cannabis Compliance Board.
Assembly Bill 76 mandates a study from the Cannabis Advisory Commission on the sale of substances that may evade regulation or taxation. The Commission held its first meeting on the issue.
“We’re adding two studies to really determine potentially illicit market or counterfeit cannabis that is on the market, whether it’s intoxicating hemp or that illicit market,” Humm said.
AB 76 also mandates a study on taxation of cannabis sales, including tax revenue directed to the State Education Fund.
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