Welcome to Las Vegas. Would you like a spliff or two?

I had a lunch meeting with the Las Vegas tourism people in Sydney a couple of months ago. We were talking about what is new in Nevada. 

Strangely, they did not mention that it is now legal to buy and use marijuana. So legal, in fact, that the local professional soccer team is sponsored by a marijuana dispensary.

The Las Vegas Lights (who play in the second-level USL professional soccer competition), announced this weekend that they were lighting up with NuWu Cannabis. 

The Lights have made history by becoming the first professional sports team in the U.S. to team up with a 24-hour drive-in marijuana business.

“The good people of Nevada voted in support of it, and we are in support of Las Vegas. We are in support of Downtown Las Vegas. We are in support of our neighbors,” said Brett Lashbrook, the team owner and CEO. 

Lashbrook added that although marijuana is a completely legalized and regulated, he still sees a stigma attached to the industry and hopes that this partnership will help normalize it.

Even though NuWu sponsors the team and has a large display at the ground, it is still against the law for marijuana to be sold or consumed at games. 

In fact, the 43 million tourists visiting the city each year can buy the product, but there are few places, other than private homes, where someone can legally light up a joint.

In Nevada, and the seven other US states that allow people to consume marijuana for fun, it’s typically illegal to smoke or ingest the drug in dispensaries, bars, restaurants, city parks and public streets. Hotels and landlords often ban people from using the drug on their property.

NuWu Cannabis Marketplace, just a couple of blocks off the strip, boasts on its website that it offers "hundreds of marijuana products and paraphernalia and is the "largest recreational marijuana store on the planet!"