Sheriff: Legalization of marijuana in Nevada did ‘nothing’ to halt black market

Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in an interview with two venture capitalists that Las Vegas’ marijuana black market persists despite the drug’s legalization in Nevada.

“The legalization of marijuana has done nothing to eradicate the black market of marijuana,” McMahill said in an interview with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, venture capitalists who founded the Andreessen Horowitz firm, also known as a16z.

Horowitz is also a big-time donor to Metro, having given more than $7.5 million to the department to fund new technologies. McMahill joined the pair for an interview, which was posted Monday on a16z’s YouTube channel.

“Low-level drug deals out on the street absolutely lead to violence,” McMahill said. “I’ve been to a hundred bar fights over alcohol and never one bar fight over marijuana. But I’ve been to a lot of homicide scenes over the low-level sales of marijuana.”

Since the drug’s legalization in Nevada in 2017, McMahill said in the interview, there’s not much for him to say on the matter. But he said police need to look at the “behaviors of individuals associated” with these sales.

Early in the year, experts said that the illegal market is one of the biggest challenges facing the cannabis industry, both statewide and elsewhere.

Nevada’s cannabis market differs from those in other states, Nevada Cannabis Association Executive Director Layke Martin previously told the Review-Journal. In Las Vegas, licensed companies can only deliver to private residences.

This is something tourists might not know, Martin said, meaning that if tourists have marijuana delivered to a hotel or resort, they might not be aware that the company who delivered it wasn’t licensed.

Since the drug’s legalization, police have located and busted unlicensed dispensaries.

Metro did not comment on its efforts to address what McMahill said was the persisting black market.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinson.bsky.social on Bluesky.