There is no more fascinating slice of American history to me than that of Las Vegas, Nevada.
It wasn’t a city, it was a dream that was built painstakingly with money, time, and passion.
What we see now is but a shadow of what it used to be. Before everything else, it was just an empty patch of desert. Bugsy Siegel had a vision for a mecca of gambling and debauchery, a place where people would pay money for the chance to hit it big. He was selling a dream, and that is exactly what Las Vegas turned out to be years later. I am not a local historian, I run a cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas, however my shop does feature a lot of local memorabilia and historical facts for the customers. Everyone loves gangsters, at least from a historical perspective, and Las Vegas has no shortage of history with organized crime. One of the ways that Las Vegas has balanced things out was by managing their local crime. This is why cannabis is looked upon so positively by the local law enforcement officers – because pot doesn’t cause crime in Las Vegas, and letting it slide is better for everyone. Hard drugs, or major drug dealing operations have no place in Vegas, and get shut down quickly, but everyone turns a blind eye to cannabis, for the greater good. In a town like Las Vegas with a history of organized crime, we are all very experienced with turning a blind eye to criminal activity for the greater good. It’s sort of how the whole place got started.