In an area of the country that may as well be a universe apart from where most of us live, lawmakers and public officials in Nevada are scrambling to find more weed to sell.
A marijuana shortage has prompted officials to declare a state of emergency and consider their options for expanding their supply.
The Nevada Tax Commission is meeting Thursday to determine whether the state has enough wholesale marijuana distributors; it could also adopt emergency regulations.
"Right now, only companies that are also licensed to distribute liquor in Nevada are able to bring marijuana to dispensaries," Nevada Public Radio's Casey Morell reports for NPR's Newscast unit. "The dispensaries say that's why they're running out of the drug."
The state's licensed dispensaries completed "over 40,000 retail transactions" during the first week of sales according to officials, more than twice as many as expected in some locations.
State officials are acting with all due haste because every single sale of legal weed is more tax revenue for the state's coffers. Sales are expected to generate over $100 million in revenue for the state over the next two years, but their projections may fall short if they run out of weed to sell.
As someone who believes that marijuana should be legalized nationwide, I'm not too concerned about Attorney General Jeff Sessions' tough talk on shutting down the industry. If he ever actually attempts to do so, states will fight back all the way to the Supreme Court to protect their revenue streams.