The Las Vegas community bank that last year announced it was open to banking Nevada’s budding medical marijuana industry has changed its mind, telling KNPR’s State of Nevada that compliance issues made it difficult to handle these businesses.

Jason Awad, chief executive officer of First Security Bank of Nevada, said the bank will be sending letters to its customers informing them of the bank’s decision. He told KNPR’s State of Nevada these were holding accounts used by dispensary owners while they were waiting to be licensed.

“We found after several months that the cost is so prohibitive and the burden so high that it is very difficult to do what we … really wanted to do,” Awad told KNPR.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada senators want to increase the number of medical marijuana licenses allocated throughout the state.

Democratic Sen. Tick Segerblom and Republican Sen. Patricia Farley presented SB276 to the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

The bill would raise the cap on medical marijuana dispensary licenses within the state, most of which are in Las Vegas and Reno. The measure would allow for 20 more licenses in Clark County, five more in Washoe County and an additional license in all other counties.

Proponents said it will give access to patients in underserved areas.

Opponents said Nevada should wait until dispensaries are up and running to see whether there's enough demand for more.

Marijuana Named as Next Big High Growth Sector

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mentor Capital, Inc. (OTCQB: MNTR) reports that its CEO, Chet Billingsley, will be a guest speaker at two cannabis investment panels this Monday and Tuesday at the MoneyShow being held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The May 11th panel is titled “Meet the Experts Behind Medical Marijuana: Your Top Investments in this Growing Industry for 2015” and is hosted by Matt McCall, founder of the Penn Financial Group. The Tuesday panel is hosted by Scott Greiper, the founder of Viridian Capital, and covers “Investing in the Next Big High Growth Sector” and will be webcast at 4:45 PM.

Hugh Hempel is a technology industry veteran turned health care entrepreneur. In this moving talk he discusses how medicinal cannabis has enriched the lives of his ailing 11 year-old daughters. This talk will challenge your views of medical marijuana. 

Hugh Hempel is a technology industry veteran turned healthcare entrepreneur. During his 30-year career in high technology, Hugh has held numerous senior management positions in many innovative and pioneering technology companies.

If Nevada votes to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016 — which many on both sides of the legalization fence think is an inevitability — some industry experts foresee a legal cannabis economy that will feature 420-friendly poker rooms and on-strip hotel weed delivery services.

With Las Vegas leading the state’s pot tourism thrust — the city sees more than 40 million visitors annually — some in the cannabis industry wonder if Nevada will steal all of the marijuana tourist-oriented momentum from Colorado, Washington and other states.

After spending months in limbo, waiting for the state to hash out rules for testing medical marijuana, laboratories might be able to get to work soon. That moves patients one step closer to the first legal sales in dispensaries.

A state health official said Tuesday that all the rules are in place for labs to start testing marijuana. But in a sign of how confusing the process has been, that news came as a surprise to a dispensary owner and a lab scientist, who both expected a longer wait for the state to finalize some rules.

“It’s been incredibly frustrating,” Cindy Orser, chief science officer of DigiPath Labs, said of the wait. “We were hoping to be operational at the end of January. Or February. Or March. Or April. And now it’s May.”

The state of Colorado legalized recreational marijuana a year and a half ago. And those in the industry there say it is already showing dividends in terms of tourism.

"Business Insider just named Colorado the fastest growing economy in the country. They say we are number one out of 50 states!" says Michael Elliott with the Marijuana Industries Group in Denver. His groups is kind of like the Chamber of Commerce for marijuana-related industries there. "We see this all helping fill up hotels and cut unemployment. Our unemployment right now is at 4%."

Ashley Kilroy with the Marijuana Policy for the City of Denver would agree that tourism is up...but says you can't attribute it all to pot.

LAS VEGAS, Nev., May 2, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas on May 2 has the entire world riveted. Whoever emerges victorious everyone will win at the Mega Fight After Party with Nicki Minaj and Funkmaster Flex. Now Weedmaps has joined FilmOn TV, Moet USA, MYX Fusions and Red Bull to sponsor the party of the year.

LAS VEGAS, April 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemp, Inc. (OTC:HEMP), processor, manufacturer and marketer, in the industrial hemp industry, is pleased to update its shareholders on the progress of its decortication facility in Spring Hope, North Carolina. Thus far, Hemp, Inc.

DENVER — With smiles, selfies and a few nervous chuckles, a group of Nevada legislators and policymakers got a first-hand look at Colorado's fast-growing legal marijuana industry this weekend, coming face-to-face with thousands of green growing plants.

The small group is part of Nevada's efforts to understand what legalization could mean. The Silver State has permitted medical marijuana, and now there's talk voters might be asked to legalize recreational pot next year.

The group met its Colorado counterparts, and toured several marijuana stores, including the high-tech, 40,000-square-foot Medicine Man in Denver, one of the state's largest.