Yemenidjian alleges that Spirtos has accused him of criminal activity to other people, including lobbyist and former Assembly Speaker John Oceguera during an encounter at Gov. Steve Sisolak’s inaugural ball.

The widespread involvement of attorneys wasn’t — and still isn’t — clear-cut, considering marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

Records offer a glimpse of the challenges that will lie ahead as Nevada once again overhauls its marijuana regulation next year and adopts an oversight regime not unlike the one that reined casinos into a respected mainstream.

Auditors recommended the state increase transparency in its application process, including having a more open dialogue with applicants about requirements in the scoring process. Sisolak said the lack of a public forum for such discussion was “troublesome,” citing revelations from court proceedings this summer that some applicants received guidance on the scoring criteria in private dinners with regulators.

Deonne Contine, the director of the Nevada Department of Administration who is best known for her role in rolling out the state’s recreational marijuana program, is resigning from her position less than a year after being appointed, citing family obligations.

A report compiled by the American Addiction Centers, the largest U.S. network of rehabilitation facilities, analyzed DEA data on marijuana cultivation, arrests for growing, and eradicated growth sites. The numbers also show that states with more illegally cultivated marijuana grows have a higher number of marijuana-related arrests.

Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said a dozen ongoing lawsuits involving the state and at least eight forthcoming administrative hearings on potential license revocations created enough work for four full-time attorneys in the month of September alone.

Officials from Thrive Dispensary declined to say what accommodations were made to the center to change leaders’ minds, saying the agreement between the business and the nonprofit was confidential. But the center’s executive director, Roxanne DeCarlo, had previously told The Nevada Independent that Thrive was interested in helping them move.

Department of Taxation spokeswoman Eden Larson confirmed to The Nevada Independent late Tuesday that department records did not show any contact with Igor Fruman, Lev Parnas, David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, the four men named in the indictment who hatched a plot in 2018 that included giving campaign contributions — funded by a Russian national — to Nevada political candidates.

The Russian citizen and four defendants met in September to discuss the venture but later realized they missed an early September deadline to apply for one of 61 dispensary licenses that were eventually awarded. One defendant said that the group was “2 months too late to the game unless we change the rules,” and said they needed a sympathetic governor who would give the “green light to implement this,” the complaint says.

Jorge Pupo, who oversaw a recent round of marijuana dispensary licensing that came under fire for being unfair, is no longer with the Nevada Department of Taxation, officials confirmed Tuesday.

“I feel like … because it's in the middle of a lawsuit, we're putting the cart before the horse,” Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said last week before casting the lone vote against licensing a new storefront for The Source. ”Are there some council members that are fine with that? I'm not.”

The first confirmed case in Nevada is a person under the age of 18 in Clark County, who was hospitalized with symptoms of pulmonary illness linked to vaping. The patient has been released from the hospital and is recovering.

The state has not released further details about why Pupo is on leave from his job as the agency's deputy executive director, citing the fact that the matter is a personnel issue. But Pupo came under fire in court over the summer and most recently in a newly filed lawsuit by marijuana companies that want the entire application review and licensing round redone.

The department and related entities “are now engaging in a cover-up of the rampant illegality and corruption that infected the license application process for the recreational Dispensaries,” the complaint says.

The Empowerment Center, located 15 feet away from the dispensary, is urging council members to deny the license on the basis that it could pose too much of a temptation for clients at a vulnerable stage in their lives.

Marijuana tax contributions have increased by 33 percent year over year, from $74.7 million paid last fiscal year to $99.18 million in the 2019 fiscal year, with another $10 million fees on top of that. The Nevada Dispensary Association announced the milestone in a press release on Tuesday, along with a warning that the state should not take the strong collections for granted.

Taxation officials noted that a “vast majority” of licensees will still be able to move forward toward opening their dispensaries because the injunction Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued on Friday is limited to licensees who didn't provide complete identification of every member of their leadership team.