Rachel Gillette of Holland & Hart Dishes on The Cannabis Hospitality Business in Las Vegas and Elsewhere

Today welcome back a returning guest who has extensive experience helping scores of clients, from individual entrepreneurs to publicly traded companies, navigate complex cannabis disputes and successful business strategies. She is a partner and lead of the cannabis practice at Holland & Hart, based in Denver. Elevations Hotels and Resorts, based out of Arizona, announced in January they will convert the Artisan Hotel Boutique, which is just off the Las Vegas Strip, into The Lexi, a 64-room hotel with the entire fourth floor designated as cannabis friendly. Elevations also own and operate the Clarendon Hotel & Spa in Phoenix, which lays claim to being the state’s first cannabis-friendly hotel. We discuss how amenities and the guest experience will ultimately be different and how this Vegas location will be able to perform. The Street reports that Las Vegas has a cannabis conundrum. The city allows the sale of marijuana for recreational use, but it only allows it to be smoked in private residences. That means that people visiting the Las Vegas Strip, Fremont Street, or any other part of the city are technically breaking the law when they light up. Nevada has taken steps to correct the problem. The state has set the framework for legal consumption lounges and two very interesting players are getting close to giving Las Vegas tourists a place to legally (and comfortably) light up their joints, pipes, and other methods of smoking cannabis.