In Las Vegas, a Native American Tribe Has Become an Unexpected Marijuana Powerhouse

Benny Tso sports a dark green hoodie with a tribal necklace and a large beaded medallion bearing the word NuWu.

The word, which in the Las Vegas Paiute native language means “We, the Southern Paiute people,” will likely be remembered by future generations of the 56-member tribe for its economic significance. NuWu is the name of the Paiutes’ two cannabis dispensaries on separate plots of tribal land in Las Vegas, making waves around the world for its size, innovation and — like the city it’s based in — flair for the extravagant.

“We want to be different,” Tso said. “Cannabis is the economic future of the tribe.”

Tso, a burly, tattoo-laden man in his early 40s, engineered the opening of the massive 15,800 square-foot mega-dispensary that claims to be the world’s biggest cannabis store by retail space. Opened in October 2017, NuWu Cannabis Marketplace added the country’s first fast food-style cannabis drive-thru two months later and, thanks to Nevada law that prevents non-tribal dispensaries from having drive-thrus, remains Nevada’s only dispensary with such an option. Last summer, the Paiutes sparked the attention of ESPN and Sports Illustrated after becoming the first U.S.-based cannabis company to partner with a professional sports team, the USL’s Las Vegas Lights.

In November, the dispensary was featured in a segment on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and the following month sold the most expensive cannabis product to date — an $11,000 gold leaf-wrapped cannabis cigar — to a visiting Los Angeles buyer.

The Paiutes mega-dispensary on a plot of land less than one mile north of downtown Las Vegas’ popular Fremont Street — where 18 million annual tourists visit each year per local authorities — attracts up to 3,000 daily shoppers. NuWu North, a second smaller dispensary opened in January on a separate tribal plot of land in the northwest part of town, hopes to attract another 1,000 daily customers.

The dispensaries’ successes have been a welcome financial boost for the tribe, Tso said. The Paiutes’ primary income streams before marijuana were a pair of smoke shops and golf courses. Both once-profitable industries have declined rapidly over the past decade, and competition with the Las Vegas Strip has eliminated potential profit from opening a casino.

Tso, who served as the Paiutes’ chairman for 12 years before stepping down last July, worked with new tribal chairman Chris Spotted Eagle to pursue cannabis starting back in 2015. At that time, marijuana was medical-only and not yet profitable in Nevada.

“We saw the potential there for the future, with recreational cannabis likely coming up, and we thought it was the right time to get involved,” Spotted Eagle said.

While the two Paiute leaders envisioned future success in a recreational-only model, the road to cannabis riches hasn’t always been smooth. In early 2016, the tribe partnered with New Mexico-based Ultra Health Cannabis to build a 2,500 square-foot medical cannabis dispensary and cultivation facility near Snow Mountain, in the northwest Las Vegas Valley, where NuWu North now stands. That deal fell through less than a month after the tribe broke ground on the medical facility.

It took that well-publicized failure and a special compact with the Nevadagovernor’s office in the 2017 state legislature for the Paiutes to make their cannabis dreams a reality.

Tso, Spotted Eagle and then-Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval worked to pass Senate Bill 375 during the legislative session. The landmark law opened the door for legal negotiations on the use and sale of cannabis on tribal lands, and permitted the governor’s office to bypass federal laws limiting commerce talks between Nevada tribes and Congress. That meant the Paiutes no longer needed to partner with a third-party dispensary company like Ultra Health to open their own cannabis facility.

The Paiutes, anticipating the bill would pass, had already begun building their first marketplace, with plans to establish something bigger than the 45 dispensaries already located across the Las Vegas Valley. A simple, European-inspired waiting room-free design with massive 30-foot glass windows made it easy for NuWu to quickly build and open. The design provided customers with an indoor view of the downtown skyline, less than one mile from where 18 million annual tourists visit downtown Las Vegas.

“In true Las Vegas style, we went all-in,” Spotted Eagle said.

NuWu now carries more than 900 different products from nearly all of the state’s over 200 combined cultivation and production facilities, the Paiutes have written seven-figure checks for some of their product purchases. 

Some cultivators and producers, which bled money fighting over only 30,000 state-registered cardholders during Nevada’s two years as a medical cannabis-only state in 2015 and 2016, are now thriving thanks in part to giant purchases from the tribe.

Jillian Nelson, Vice President of Operations at Evergreen Organix, began selling to NuWu when the Paiutes opened the doors to their first dispensary in 2017. Nelson, whose production facility is the largest supplier of concentrates and edible cannabis products in Nevada, said NuWu has purchased nearly all of Evergreen Organix’s items at some point, including vape pens, Rick Simpson Oil, chocolates and even flower. Nelson called the Paiutes “a very ethical group of people to work with,” adding their presence is “very positive for the industry in general.”

Ditto for Thomas Calabrese, spokesman for Las Vegas-based producer and cultivator QualCan. Calabrese, whose facility sells more than a dozen combined flower, edible and concentrate products to the tribe, said the Paiutes’ consistent orders have helped QualCan — one of Nevada’s longest-licensed cultivators — maintain a healthy cash flow.

“They set the blueprint for the industry and how everybody should conduct business,” he said.

NuWu’s example has also sparked the interest of tribes across the U.S. and Canada, Spotted Eagle said. Requests for tours from visiting Native American leaders have become so frequent, the Paiutes now have a vetting system to determine which tribes are serious about opening a facility versus those just traveling for a Las Vegas vacation and selfie photos at the mega-dispensary.

States have different laws on cannabis and restrictions on a tribe’s ability to grow and sell the plant, and Spotted Eagle notes there’s no “one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter formula,” even for U.S.-based tribes, until the plant becomes federally legal.

In the meantime, the tribe is happy to educate its Native American brethren while ensuring the Las Vegas Paiutes are an economic driver in Nevada for decades to come.

“It’s about all of us in the industry and how we can all work to make it better,” Spotted Eagle said. “We’re pushing the bar, and we encourage other people to do the same.”

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