RCG Economics released a report Friday that predicts legalized marijuana will produce $8 billion in direct, indirect and induced economic benefits from 2018 through 2024. The report was commissioned by the Nevada Dispensary Association, a marijuana trade group, and reflects a more robust industry than RGC’s 2016 report, which had predicted $7.5 billion in economic benefit over the same period.

New, over-performing streams of marijuana tax revenue have become a major talking point on the campaign trail, with candidates promising to help Nevada schools by sending revenue from the Rainy Day fund back to schools where it was intended. But are schools really missing out on millions of pot dollars they've been promised? Read on for more.

Nevada’s marijuana dispensaries brought in more than half a billion dollars in revenue during the first year of legalized sales, with the state overperforming expectations and collecting $69.8 million in taxes for recreational sales. The Nevada Department of Taxation announced Tuesday that recreational sales of marijuana between July 2017 and July 2018 brought in about 140 percent of what the state had initially expected to collect.

Airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said this week it’s impossible to offer a weight or quantify exactly how much has been collected in the six months since the boxes were installed because of the diversity of marijuana products that’s turned in — everything from cannabis-infused drinks to marijuana flower to vape pens.

Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer is one of the most prominent voices advocating for marijuana legalization in Congress, to the point that he became one of four founding members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. He took time last week to answer questions from The Nevada Independent about the outlook for marijuana legislation in Washington D.C. Here are some takeaways from the conversation.

On July 1, Nevada marked one year since legal recreational marijuana sales began. A look at what's changed for the state, and where it's still too early to tell the effects.

The marijuana industry would be protected from federal interference in states like Nevada that have passed laws to legalize the drug under a bill introduced last week in Congress.

Democratic state Sen. and Clark County Commission candidate Tick Segerblom, who has been the state’s most prominent pot legalization advocate, has joined the board of another marijuana-related company.

Advocates who push for patients’ needs amid the surge in recreational customers want to ensure products with healing benefits are still available even if ones more likely to get people high might sell better, for example, and they also want to ensure medical patients aren’t waiting behind recreational ones when they get to a dispensary.

“I think Vegas has the opportunity to completely turn this on its head,” Ricardo Baca said in a recent interview with The Nevada Independent. “I wouldn’t be surprised if three years from now we can order a 10 mg shot of CBD in our Jamba Juice or if we have pre-rolls in the mini bar waiting for us in a nice glass tube. I think that the possibilities are endless.”

Gardner, who represents a state with legalized recreational marijuana, had vowed in January to block all of Trump’s nominations to the Department of Justice after Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the Cole Memo — Obama-era guidance that gave states some comfort that federal prosecutors wouldn’t target state-legal marijuana industries. In a statement, Gardner announced he was lifting that blockade — a significant impediment in a Senate where Republicans hold a thin 51-49 majority — because Trump told him Colorado would be spared.

Hemp remains a federally controlled substance, but about 35 states, including Nevada, have pilot programs that allow farmers to grow hemp, a variety of cannabis, for sale. Last year, more than 20 growers participated in the state’s program, which is administered by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, over 428 acres, and demand is expected to keep growing.

Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager is still pushing ahead with a de facto moratorium on new recreational marijuana stores, despite the skepticism of most of her fellow commissioners.

Clark County Commissioners are preparing to again bring up a policy requiring recreational marijuana dispensaries have a component serving medical patients — which some in the industry say will create a de-facto stay on new dispensaries.

A bipartisan group of seven senators, including Catherine Cortez Masto, on Wednesday wrote to the leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, urging them to hold a hearing on a bill that would allow banks to work with state-licensed marijuana businesses.

Experts say that if there’s a federal crackdown on marijuana, it’ll probably start with cases where pot is seeping from states where it’s legal to where it’s illegal, or over banking issues, as opposed to a direct broadside on legal dispensaries.

The two officials — who fell on opposite sides of the marijuana legalization debate — want to reverse a last-minute move in the 2017 legislative session that sent proceeds from a 10 percent excise tax on recreational marijuana into a savings account, rather than to education as Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval initially proposed.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto met with new U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson last month and made the case that she should refrain from cracking down on recreational marijuana use after the Justice Department reversed its policy giving states protections from federal prosecution.