Only two cannabis bills became law while several more await Gov. Joe Lombardo’s decision.

Nevada’s cannabis legislation continues to favor commercial growth and regulatory control over medical research and patient access. The 2025 legislative session saw a wave of bills aimed at tightening tax enforcement, expanding THC limits, requesting subpoenas for individuals suspected of unlicensed cannabis sales, and facilitating joint business ventures—clear indicators of a market evolving around recreational use.

Legislation passed this year marks another session showcasing cannabis leaders’ shift away from the early medical framework that once justified legalization. Lawmakers sought to streamline permitting, standardize testing, expand cannabis businesses’ sales options, and crack down on unlicensed operators—all while limiting the oversight powers of the state’s cannabis regulatory board in favor of tax authorities.

As new rules sharpen focus on commercial cannabis, efforts to advance medical research have faded. A decades-old, unused research program was quietly repealed as the state places an emphasis on regulation, revenue, and retail.

Bills Signed Into Law

Lombardo has 10 days to sign or veto several cannabis bills that passed both houses before the end of the Legislature. Here are two he has enacted:

• Lawmakers repealed a 2001 bill, as amended by Assembly Bill 365, introduced by the Assembly Committee on Education, which required the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine to establish a medical cannabis research program and report its quarterly findings. This comes as the school currently offers a Cannabis Healthcare and Medicine Certificate — an 8-week program that costs $2,450. 
• Senate Bill 41, introduced by the Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development, strengthens the state’s ability to enforce excise tax compliance by requiring cannabis businesses to obtain a one-time cannabis tax permit from the Nevada Department of Taxation. It also requires them to register for a seller’s permit before acquiring a license from the Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) for each physical location. 

  In Nevada, licensed cannabis sales are taxed in three layers: a 10% excise tax at the retail level, the standard state sales tax of approximately 8%, and a 15% excise tax applied at the wholesale level, specifically on sales from cultivators to retailers. An excise tax is a specific tax levied on products such as guns, tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis.The change would remove the CCB’s authority to penalize cannabis businesses that fail to meet tax obligations and instead place that authority with the Department of Taxation. The policy, which takes full effect on July 1, 2027, would also authorize the Department of Taxation to seek tax payments from anyone who sells cannabis, whether licensed or not.

  Lombardo signed the bill into law last week.

Bills Awaiting the Governor’s Signature

Several major cannabis-related bills have passed both houses of the Legislature and are now headed to Lombardo’s desk:

• The Assembly Committee on Judiciary introduced AB76, which would make several changes to Nevada’s cannabis law, including removing the seeds, stalks, and roots of the plant from the definition of cannabis; concealing the identities of individuals who file complaints with the Cannabis Compliance Board about compliance violations or unlicensed activities; authorizing the Board to issue summons and subpoenas for those suspected of unlawful cannabis sales; and reducing redundancy in labeling. 

  The hefty bill passed both houses with broad bipartisan support and is headed to the governor’s desk. 

• SB157, sponsored by Democrat state Senator Edgar Flores, strengthens regulatory oversight by making cannabis product testing mandatory and standardized across the state. Under the proposal, samples from each lot must be tested by an independent laboratory specializing in cannabis testing. 
• Democratic Assemblymember Rochelle Nyguen sponsored SB168, which makes several changes to cannabis regulations, including reduced information on packaging and allowing cannabis cultivation and production facilities to buy, sell, or share cannabis seeds, branded merchandise, and related supplies with people both inside and outside of Nevada, as long as they follow specific rules and restrictions. 

  The bill, which would go into effect immediately if signed, also requires the Cannabis Compliance Board to provide more online information for cannabis licensees regarding what’s needed to be compliant alongside regulatory checklists. It would additionally increase the legal limit of THC in infused cannabis products to 1,000 milligrams, up from 800 milligrams for edibles and 2,500 milligrams for topical products, up from 800 milligrams. 

• Assembly Bill 504 also awaits the governor’s signature, which would require businesses that do not hold a cannabis establishment license but sell hemp products for human consumption to display that all items contain less than the legal limit of THC or 0.3%. The Assembly Committee on Judiciary introduced this bill, which authorizes the CCB to investigate violations of the provisions and refer them to the Attorney General for prosecution.

Bills That Died in Session

Several bills failed to make it out of committee or receive floor votes:

• Republican Assemblymembers Danielle Gallant and Lisa Cole sought to eliminate the excise tax on wholesale cannabis sales with Assembly Bill 307, while increasing the amount of the excise tax on retail sales. It would have also revised how the revenues from the excise tax on the retail sales of cannabis and cannabis products must be distributed, but the bill died in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee after being heard once. 
• Senate Bill 356 reforms the legal definition of hemp, the ability of the state cannabis control board to govern hemp, and dictates how much THC is allowed in hemp. It failed to receive a vote in both houses after being omitted from the agenda. 
• Assemblyman Max Carter’s Assembly Bill 149 aimed to authorize the Cannabis Compliance Board to disclose confidential information and data that it maintains to a research institution, defined as a university, college, or other organization whose principal purpose is conducting medical, scientific, or academic research. Following a single hearing in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the bill failed to receive a floor vote and ultimately died. 
• Carter’s Assembly Bill 203 also failed to advance past the same committee in which it was introduced. This legislation would have made broad changes to Nevada’s cannabis laws, including updates to packaging, labeling, and delivery rules, new allowances for joint ventures with cannabis businesses, including social equity licensees, and revisions to regulations governing consumption lounges. It would have also placed limits on the Cannabis Compliance Board’s authority, made changes to tax and enforcement provisions, and mandated a joint report from cannabis and gaming regulators on cannabis-related issues. 
• Republican Assemblymember Toby Yurek introduced Assembly Bill 400, which died without receiving a hearing. The bill sought to require peace officer applicants to confess to any cannabis use within 12 months of applying to the position. It also would have transferred revenues collected from the excise tax strictly to local governments, instead of including the CCB.AB400 also sought to require The Economic Forum—a panel of private-sector economists that makes tax revenue projections for the governor and lawmakers as they build the state budget—to provide an accurate estimate of the revenue that the State will collect during the biennium that begins on July 1 of the year following the date on which the Economic Forum was empaneled.