WEST WENDOVER, Nevada — Business appears to be doing well at West Wendover's lone cannabis dispensary.
"We get them from all over the place," said Janie Carder, the retail manager at Deep Roots Harvest. "Idaho, Nevada, Utah. They like to come visit from all over."
Recreational cannabis sales have been legal in Nevada since 2016. Deep Roots Harvest opened its doors in West Wendover in 2019. As city leaders considered approving a dispensary, there were some concerns among the community as the city's former mayor pushed for it as a way to diversify West Wendover's economy.
Mayor Jasie Holm, who voted to support the dispensary when she was a council member, said it has been a good decision to allow it in the casino border town.
"I really think it’s gone great. I haven’t heard that many complaints about it," she told FOX 13 News. "Occasionally about the smell of cannabis... but I've never heard anything really bad about it. They are good community partners."
Economically speaking, it has been an economic benefit to West Wendover. Nevada collects an excise tax on cannabis (wholesale and retail operations) that generated $133 million last year. Nevada's Department of Taxation reported $848 million in taxable sales on cannabis statewide in fiscal year 2023.
Since 2019, West Wendover has received more than $3 million in excise tax dollars from cannabis. It's significant for the community of about 5,000 residents. On weekends, West Wendover's population swells as Utahns make a run for the border to gamble at casinos, take in a concert, visit discount liquor stores and even visit the dispensary.
Mayor Holm said with the money, West Wendover has been able to make some improvements like new playgrounds, fix up the high school football bleachers, new equipment for youth sports and purchase security cameras. They offer grants with the excise tax money.
"Two years into it, we’ve given $115,000 to the school," she said.
Deep Roots Harvest also makes its own donations to community causes like a recent $15,000 contribution to the JAS Foundation, which runs a food pantry in West Wendover.
"We do donations to our senior center," Carder said. "We’re doing donations to the air base to do a refurbishment on an Army Jeep, just giving to the community."
Like a lot of things that are legal in Nevada, recreational cannabis remains illegal in Utah (medical cannabis was legalized by voters in 2018). Transporting cannabis across the border is a crime. But the Utah Highway Patrol has said it can only make traffic stops based on probable cause for things like impairment. Mayor Holm said she has not heard of any significant increases in DUIs.
"There are occasional pullovers on I-80 you know for a DUI, which [people] shouldn’t be doing anyway," the mayor said of driving while intoxicated.
The Utah Highway Safety Office provided FOX 13 News data from Tooele County, which stretches all the way along I-80 to the Utah-Nevada border. Since 2019, arrests for DUIs (both alcohol and drugs) have remained steady:
- 2019 - 384 / 3.8% of statewide total
- 2020 - 324 / 3.1%
- 2021 - 371 / 3.5%
- 2022 - 278 / 2.7%
- 2023 - 355 / 3.2%
Deep Roots Harvest said it does warn customers about Nevada law.
"It is legal in Nevada, but you cannot travel over state lines," Carder said. "You’ve got to make sure you’re following the regulations for Nevada. No public consumption."
To address concerns about public consumption, Nevada's legislature allowed for cannabis lounges. Regulators are approving them in the Las Vegas area. Asked if West Wendover might see one, Mayor Holm said one has not been proposed, nor has it been discussed.
"If that does happen, I guess we’ll just cross that bridge when it comes," she said.
