In 2016, I stood before church congregations, business groups and parent organizations, warning about the dangers of legalizing recreational marijuana. My “100 Reasons to Vote No on Question 2” became something of a manifesto for the opposition. We lost that fight, 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent.

Eight years later, as I watch Nevada grapple with the consequences of that decision, I take no satisfaction in saying we told you so. But intellectual honesty demands we examine whether the marijuana industry kept its promises on funding education and ensuring public safety — and whether Nevada's families are paying the price we predicted.

Legal cannabis' impact on education has been a mirage. The industry promised $60 million annually in tax revenue with $20 million specifically for schools. Yes, cannabis excise tax revenue exceeded those promises with $120 million in fiscal year 2024 and $133 million in 2023, but those numbers tell only part of the story. 

As the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities warns, these revenues have proven “volatile and challenging to project,” declining each year since their 2021 peak. While cannabis taxes have raised nearly $716 million for K-12 education since 2018, this amounts to only about 2 percent of the $12.9 billion budgeted for K-12 education for the next two years — hardly the game-changer voters were sold. We were promised a reliable funding stream that would meaningfully improve our schools. Instead, we got an unstable revenue source that is not moving the needle on education in Nevada. 

While the promised education windfall evaporates, the public safety costs mount. Eight years ago, legal cannabis evangelists claimed that their product was “safer” than alcohol, but the increase in marijuana-involved traffic deaths exposes how disingenuous this hollow campaign talking point was. In 2021, Nevada recorded 38 fatal crashes involving drivers testing positive only for marijuana, almost double the number in 2016, the year before recreational cannabis became legal. THC was present in 70 other fatal crashes in which drivers also used alcohol or other drugs.

A 2025 study in Science Direct confirms what Nevada's experience demonstrates: States that legalize recreational marijuana face a devastating trade-off. While legalization may reduce illicit market activity and generate tax revenue, researchers found “compelling evidence of a significant increase in traffic fatalities associated with the drug's greater availability.” Fatal crashes involving impaired drivers have increased from 2018-2022 (the latest data available), with the Nevada Department of Transportation noting that speed and impairment are the top contributing factors in crashes.

The enforcement nightmare we predicted has materialized as well. As one attorney notes, determining cannabis intoxication is more difficult than alcohol testing, requiring blood draws and lab analysis for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels, with traces staying in the body much longer than alcohol. The Science Direct study confirms this, noting that “enforcing such laws remains challenging due to the absence of a reliable roadside test for THC, analogous to alcohol breathalysers.” 

The study also notes that unlike alcohol enforcement, which relies on objective breathalyzer results, marijuana enforcement requires “resource-intensive training of officers in drug recognition techniques and introduces subjectivity.” Blood tests for THC levels, while more accurate, are “invasive, time-sensitive, and logistically difficult to implement during traffic stops.” This means countless impaired drivers escape detection while Nevada families pay the ultimate price.

Another audacious claim was that legalization would practically eliminate illegal marijuana sales. But as recently as 2023, 21 percent to 30 percent of marijuana sales in Nevada were illegal, according to the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board. Illegal marijuana sales in 2024 reached around $200 million, translating to a loss of about $4.2 million in tax collections designated for schools.

Why does the black market persist? The average price for an eighth of an ounce of marijuana is $40 in a legal Nevada dispensary, but an eighth on the black market costs around $5. Legal products, burdened with excise taxes and compliance costs, simply can't compete.

The human and economic costs continue to mount. Cannabis-induced emergency department visits increased 46.2 percent from 2019 to 2020, while edible cannabis ingestion among children younger than 5 skyrocketed 1,375 percent nationally from 2017 to 2021. Patients report psychosis, panic attacks and cardiovascular emergencies including heart attacks.

Such outcomes aren’t surprising given the potency of these products. Nevada allows edibles with 100 milligrams of THC and concentrates with 800 milligrams per package, products that would be unrecognizable to the Woodstock generation. 

Meanwhile, our tourism industry remains paralyzed by federal conflicts. The gaming industry maintains a hard-line stance against marijuana on casino properties, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority can't even advertise cannabis tourism outside Nevada.

The promised economic boom? Sales have fallen every year since peaking in 2021 at just over $1 billion, with the legal industry now struggling against illegal competition while social costs mount.

Where do we go from here? I don't expect Nevada to reverse course and recriminalize marijuana tomorrow. That ship has sailed. But if we're going to live with this experiment, then Big Marijuana and its investors must be held accountable for every promise made and every harm caused.

Nevadans deserve more than anecdotes and industry-funded reassurances. The Cannabis Compliance Board, working with law enforcement, public health agencies and our school districts, should establish quarterly reports that track every measurable outcome we warned about in 2016.

Start with our children. Track youth usage rates by school district, academic performance near dispensaries and addiction treatment admissions. On public safety, document every marijuana-impaired driving incident, workplace accident and black market seizure. For public health, monitor emergency room visits, psychiatric hospitalizations and child poisonings from edibles. Additionally, give us honest economic accounting, actual tax revenue minus regulatory costs, health care expenses and productivity losses. Only then can Nevadans judge whether this experiment has truly paid off.

But monitoring alone isn't enough. The marijuana industry has profited handsomely from Nevada's legalization experiment. Now it is time they funded solutions to the problems they have created.

For every dollar in profit, cannabis companies should support genuine drug prevention education. I am not referring to their “responsible use” propaganda, but honest information about cognitive impacts and addiction risks. Health care costs shouldn't fall on taxpayers; every marijuana-related emergency room visit and psychiatric hospitalization should trigger industry reimbursement.

When impaired drivers kill, families deserve the same legal recourse provided to victims of drunk drivers in many states, including dram shop laws that make establishments selling alcohol liable for drunk driving accidents (or other harm caused by intoxicated customers) in certain circumstances. Moreover, every dispensary should carry mandatory insurance for when children are harmed by its products.

Nevada needs automatic triggers that remove bad actors. Dispensaries whose products harm children should lose their licenses immediately. Retailers marketing to minors should face permanent bans. Companies linked to fatal accidents should face criminal charges, not just fines.

If alcohol and tobacco face strict regulations and numerous lawsuits, why does marijuana get a free pass? Today's high-potency products may be more dangerous than cigarettes and more impairing than alcohol.

The Cannabis Compliance Board should implement comprehensive monitoring. The Legislature should impose mitigation fees on every transaction to cover the true costs of legalization. And voters should remember that they were sold a lie.

Nevada deserves better than broken promises and corporate excuses. If we must live with legal marijuana, then let's regulate it with the seriousness its dangers demand. The industry wanted legitimacy. Now, let them face real accountability. Every dispensary owner and cannabis investor should confront the human toll of their product daily. Because, unlike their promises, the damage is real, measurable and growing.

As I asked in my “100 Reasons” campaign, who benefits from legalized cannabis? After eight years, we know the answer. The marijuana industry and its investors have extracted hundreds of millions in profits from Nevada while leaving taxpayers to clean up the mess. We have the receipts and the invoices. The bill is overdue. And it's time Big Marijuana finally pays it in full.

Jason D. Guinasso is an attorney with Greenman Goldberg Raby & Martinez in Reno and Las Vegas. Licensed in Nevada and California, he is a litigator and trial attorney. He also teaches business law at UNR and is a graduate student in the MALTS program at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author in his personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of his law firm, its clients or any other organization with which the author may be affiliated.