CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A judge cleared the way Thursday for Nevada to allow more businesses to move marijuana from growers to stores in an effort to keep up with overwhelming demand since recreational pot sales began last month.

Carson City District Judge James Russell lifted an order blocking regulators from issuing pot distribution licenses to anyone other than alcohol wholesalers. Nevada's voter-approved law is unique among pot states in providing liquor wholesalers exclusive rights to distribute marijuana unless they could not keep up with demand.

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Nevada officials have declared a state of emergency over marijuana: There's not enough of it.

Since recreational pot became legal two weeks ago, retail dispensaries have struggled to keep their shelves stocked and say they will soon run out if nothing is done to fix a broken supply chain.

"We didn't know the demand would be this intense," Al Fasano, cofounder of Las Vegas ReLeaf, said Tuesday. "All of a sudden you have like a thousand people at the door.aE&We have to tell people we're limited in our products."

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Nevada's recreational marijuana supply is drying up.

A lesson there for California?

Nevada is running out of weed -- the legal kind.

About a week after the state legalized the use of recreational pot, the state's 47 licensed marijuana stores are nearly depleted. The unexpected shortage was caused by a bottleneck in granting distribution licenses and legal challenges.

California officials better be watching carefully. Its voters legalized recreational marijuana use in November and come next Jan. 1 you will be legally allowed to buy marijuana in cities where it's allowed.

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RENO, Nev. (AP) - Most of Nevada's recreational marijuana retailers are optimistic an emergency regulation that state officials are expected to approve will help keep them from running out of pot supplies, but some are "running on fumes," an industry official said Tuesday.

The State Tax Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on an emergency measure Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed late last week in an effort to allow the state to issue pot distribution licenses currently banned by a court order.

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They arrived -- by the hundreds, on foot, in party buses and Uber rides -- at a strip mall marijuana dispensary, and the merchandise started flying off the shelf: Snake Eyes OG, double chocolate chunk brownie bites.

"What we're experiencing right here and now is history," Ross Goodman, co-owner of Las Vegas ReLeaf, said early Saturday as he stood behind a glass counter at the pot shop watching staff shuffle patrons in and out. "This is the future and we're a part of ending prohibition."

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RENO, Nev. -- Nevada's marijuana regulators may have found a way around a judge's order that threatens to block the state's first recreational pot sales scheduled to begin next month.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has signed onto an emergency regulation intended to allow recreational sales to begin July 1 at some existing medical dispensaries.

Nevada Department of Taxation spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein says the agency plans to issue recreational retail licenses next week even if it doesn't approve any distribution licenses caught up in a Carson City judge's court order.

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CARSON CITY, Nev. -- The Latest on the legal battle of the launch of Nevada's recreational pot sales

The deputy director of Nevada's Department of Taxation says state regulators still intend to have the necessary licenses in place July 1 to start selling marijuana for recreational use despite an ongoing lawsuit over the regulations.

Anna Thornley testified in Carson City District Court on Monday that the state has planned since February to have the "early start" program up and running by July to start bringing in tax revenue before a permanent system must be adopted on Jan. 1, 2018.

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In Nevada, marijuana is slated to be legalized for recreational use on July 1 -- as soon as it is, the folks at Acres Cannabis in Las Vegas look forward to selling some 5,000 joints in just 48 hours.

Their plans to meet the crush for kush are more sophisticated than enlisting a bunch of stoners to twist up fatties. Instead, the dispensary will be using the Futurola Knockbox, a Dutch-made contraption that rolls out 100 joints every three minutes or so.

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