Layke Martin, Executive Director of the Nevada Cannabis Association – Interview Series

Since September of 2020, Layke Martin has served as Executive Director of the Nevada Cannabis Association, the organization dedicated to “developing and promoting best practices among Nevada cannabis businesses” and other efforts to strengthen the Nevada cannabis industry for business owners and consumers alike. A graduate of Boston University’s School of Law, Martin previously served multiple roles in University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ Boyd School of Law, including Director of Career Development and Assistant Dean of External Relations.

Tell me about yourself and what pivotal moments made you decide to work in law?

Thank you so much for inviting me to do this interview! As you mentioned, I am an attorney and professor. Prior to law school I worked in television news, producing the 5am news hour. Working in broadcast news is great preparation for any sort of high-pressure career. You start each day with a blank page and by the end of the day you are putting a show on the air. You must be organized, quick and confident in your writing, flexible and able to handle changes such as breaking news, and you can’t procrastinate. In addition to journalism, I was also interested in politics and policy and interned in Senator Harry Reid’s Washington DC office during a summer in college. Law school seemed like it would be a good blend of my areas of interest and skills.

What types of law have you practiced in your career and why are those legal subjects important?

I practiced business litigation for five years before leaving day-to-day practice to join the administration at the Boyd School of Law at UNLV. At the law school, I started as an adjunct professor teaching in the legal writing program. The Boyd School of Law has one of the top ranked legal writing programs in the country, and it was an honor to teach part-time in that program. Then I became the Director of Career Development, helping law students identify their career goals and find meaningful internships, externships, and post-graduate employment. My favorite part of the job was working one-on-one with hundreds of law students over the years to help plan their careers. Then I became the Assistant Dean for External Relations, where in addition to overseeing Career Development, I also worked with our Alumni Relations, Development, Events, and Communications teams.

What makes the Nevada Cannabis Association important as an organization and how does it assist and better the Nevada cannabis industry?

The Nevada Cannabis Association is the oldest and largest trade association for licensed cannabis businesses in Nevada. We represent the majority of dispensaries, as well as cultivation, production, distribution, and lounge licensees and affiliated businesses.

I joined the Nevada Cannabis Association in 2020. At the time, it was the Nevada Dispensary Association. The then-President of the Association, Tisha Black, was interested in making the association more inclusive to represent the entire industry – not just dispensaries. We took a long time to plan out how we would expand membership to include additional voices while ensuring that we would be able to manage potential conflicts. I think that we have been able to successfully strike that balance. In fact, some of our most impactful legislation in 2023 was for the benefit of our newest members – cultivators — and resulted in a reduction of the wholesale excise tax.

Are there certain laws and/or regulations in Nevada that you feel hinders or otherwise damages the successful operation of the Nevada cannabis industry?

Unlicensed cannabis sales continue to be an issue. In Southern Nevada in particular, unlicensed companies target tourists online by offering direct-to-hotel deliveries. Licensed companies cannot deliver to hotels and are more or less zoned out of the resort corridor. This creates confusion for tourists who know that cannabis is legal in Nevada, but don’t realize that the fake dispensaries on the strip and companies delivering to their hotels aren’t selling legal cannabis.

The other major hindrance to a stable and successful cannabis industry nationwide is IRS Code 280E. 280E prevents state-legal cannabis businesses from deducting ordinary and necessary business expenses, resulting in an effective tax rate of as much as 80%. A recent economic report stated that only a quarter of cannabis businesses nationally are profitable. This onerous tax code is certainly a factor in that.

What are some future plans that the NCA has to keep advocating for the success of the Nevada cannabis industry?

Last session we successfully worked on several bills to reduce fees and fines. Going forward, the bills and changes to regulations that we support will seek to streamline operations, reduce red tape, and help cannabis businesses have the same type of opportunities to succeed as any other small business.

Do you see the aftermath of the 2024 elections having a lasting impact on cannabis moving forward?

In Nevada, we are fortunate that we have seen bipartisan support for cannabis as a legal business. At the Federal level, Nevada’s delegation has been incredibly supportive of our state’s cannabis businesses, and Senator Jacky Rosen in particular has introduced several favorable pieces of cannabis legislation. President Biden started in motion one of the potentially most significant shifts in Federal cannabis policy in decades, and I hope that the rescheduling process continues to move forward regardless of who succeeds him in office in 2024.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit the Nevada Cannabis Association.