A city ordinance regulating the operation of on-site cannabis consumption spaces will not go into effect following the passage of conflicting statewide legislation.

A new Nevada law prohibits employers from discriminating against potential employees who consume cannabis.

Assembly Bill 132, signed into law by Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak states it is “unlawful for any employer in [Nevada] to fail or refuse to hire a prospective employee submitted to a screening test and the results of the screening test indicate the presence of marijuana.”

The law will take effect beginning January 1, 2020.

The bill still allows for employers to administer drug tests if they choose but they are prohibited from not hiring someone based on the results of the test. Once the law takes effect in January, people will be able to take the issue to court if they feel they were discriminated against based on positive drug test results.

A new state law allowing Nevada to test out a limited marijuana banking system is expected to bring some relief to the state’s booming cannabis industry where dispensaries and other businesses are forced to deal in cash.

The measure, signed into law Wednesday by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, would let the state treasurer’s office set up a three-year pilot program for cannabis businesses.

State Treasurer Zach Conine, who pushed for the program, said the system would try to remove the large amounts of cash that Nevada’s pot industry must deal with and instead set up an online system where digital currency could be sent and received.

Commissioners in Clark County, Nevada have passed a resolution allocating almost $1.8 million from the local commercial cannabis industry to help subsidize programs dedicated to providing assistance to the homeless.

A little more than $930,000 of the earmarked money will be provided to HELP of Southern Nevada’s rehousing services “for medically fragile, non-chronically homeless households after leaving local hospitals,” according to KTNV in Las Vegas. The station reported that a little more than $855,000 will be given to HELP “to assist the program costs” associated with a homeless youth center.

The city of Las Vegas will allow marijuana social-use lounges for the first time in an effort to provide public spaces for marijuana consumption two years after legalized recreational sales launched in Nevada.

Under the new city ordinance, which was passed today in a 4-1 vote by the city council, licensed marijuana businesses in Nevada will be permitted to apply for special-use permits to open consumption lounges at which cannabis products may be sold and consumed on site. After one year, other interested business owners — including those who have not received licenses to operate marijuana dispensaries in Nevada – will be permitted to apply for consumption lounge permits as well.

Nevada’s decades-long experience with gaming means the state was well-equipped to launch its cannabis industry.

During the first year of legal adult-use cannabis sales in Nevada, the state exceeded its expected sales tax revenues by roughly 140%, filling state coffers with a whopping $70 million. Meanwhile, states from Massachusetts to California have been disappointed by their take.

This story has been edited for brevity and clarity and translated from Spanish.

Once hidden underground, it isn’t hard to find marijuana businesses in Nevada these days — they’re the sophisticated buildings in busy strip malls with bold green letters proclaiming “cannabis.”

Marijuana has risen from ignominy to prominence in the state since lawmakers authorized recreational sales in July 2017. And the plant has also taken a prominent role in the life of Priscilla Vilchis, founder of Premium Produce, a company that grows marijuana not too far from the Las Vegas Strip.

Nevada faces complaints about secrecy in awarding licenses to sell marijuana in the state’s booming legal marketplace, boiling over into lawsuits and legislation that appear poised to pry open the process.

Several companies have sued the state tax department, arguing that no one knows for sure the criteria officials use to award new licenses. They complain the state releases no information about who seeks and receives permission to sell cannabis to adults, many of them tourists, in the nearly 2-year-old market.

They will ask a judge Monday to freeze the granting of marijuana dispensary licenses, at least temporarily, until the courts decide whether it’s “arbitrary and capricious and violates the constitution,” one lawsuit says.

Nevada County’s first medical and adult-use dispensary just took another ground-breaking step.

On Wednesday, Elevation 2477’ got the OK from Nevada City’s city council to begin a delivery service, the first permitted delivery business in western Nevada County.

There’s an old saying that ‘all politics is local’ and it turns out the same goes for marijuana prices. A new report from cannabis data company Headset looked at pricing trends from four key states that have fully legalized cannabis including two states with mature sales data and two fairly new states.

The study examines average item prices throughout 2018 and for the first two months of 2019. The sales data comes from customers who participate in store loyalty programs, as well as the $4.5 billion in transactions that Headset tracks.