Despite Dramatic Drop in Sales, Cannabis Industry Continues to Give Back
In January of this year, the Nevada Dispensary Association released a report relaying significant contributions from Nevada’s Cannabis industry. Nevada dispensaries, like many Nevada businesses, are now seeing a significant drop in sales. This decrease is a combination of lack of tourism, unemployment, canceled events such as March Madness and April 20 celebrations (a popular date among cannabis consumers), and the industry’s lack of capacity to operate by delivery only.
Many businesses are in the same boat as the cannabis industry, but one thing that sets the cannabis industry apart is that the businesses are obligated to follow Federal mandates, but can not access any Federal relief. Licensed cannabis businesses in Nevada comply with Federal laws such as paying taxes and the new requirements to provide paid sick leave, and FMLA, but they are not eligible for Federal relief, such as standard tax deductions (other than costs of goods sold), emergency stimulus funds, payroll tax credits, etc.
Despite the recent dramatic change in the industry, cannabis businesses can be seen all over the State contributing to those facing hardships. Below are just some of the examples of the cannabis industry’s immediate response to hardships faced by Nevadans in light of the efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19:
TapRoot Holdings, Inc. is working on donating over 100 gallons of hand sanitizer, which the production facility made in order to help combat the spread of COVID-19. TapRoot Holdings, Inc. is continuing to iron out procedures compliant with Nevada regulations to get the hand sanitizer into the hands of the Covid-19 Task Force created by Governor Sisolak.
Plant 13 is providing 100 free meals a day to Clark County residents in need.
Fuze Extracts has announced a fund to contribute to dispensary employees who recently became unemployed.
Several dispensaries are working with a medical cannabis patient advocacy group called Nevada NORML to reduce or waive delivery fees to medical patients.
Owners of several cannabis establishments donated to the COVID-19 Response Task Force created by Governor Sisolak, including the following:
- Thrive (via Peckman Capital) – $50,000
- Matrix (via David Tuttleman) – $10,000
- The Grove (via John Ritter)- $10,000
- Las Vegas Releaf – $2,500
- Silver State Relief – $2,500
- Sierra Wellness – $2,500
- Flower One – $2,500
- Supplies, such as gloves and masks, were also contributed:
- Silver Sage Wellness (10,000 masks)
- Nevada Dispensary Association (3,000 masks)
- G5 Cultivation (500 boxes of gloves)
Nevada Dispensary Association helped organize the effort to contribute to the Task Force, donated masks, and designed and shared social media posts to promote the message to “Stay Home for Nevada,” which several cannabis establishments shared on their social media platforms.
The cannabis industry is steadfastly working toward being ready to reopen and looks forward to working with State regulators and the Governor’s Office on how and when the medical experts they rely on say it will be safe to do so.