Vegas Grow House Hid Unregistered Pot During Audit

RENO, Nev. (775 Times, NV Globe) – On Tuesday, the state agency in charge of supervising Nevada’s burgeoning marijuana business canceled the license of a cannabis grow house near Las Vegas after investigators discovered unregistered plants that represent a “immediate threat to public health and safety.”

Helping Hands Wellness Center is accused of concealing untagged and untested cannabis plants from auditors by using a storage closet and the facility’s attic. Plants that have not been registered with Nevada’s regulated “seed-to-sale” monitoring system are vulnerable to accessing the criminal market, according to state officials.

The board stated that it had undertaken a months-long investigation into Helping Hands before unanimously voting Tuesday afternoon to require the North Las Vegas production and cultivation facility to seal its doors and change the locks until firm owners could resolve the state’s concerns.

Helping Hands’ lawyer did not immediately reply to emails demanding comment.

According to a report outlining the board’s conclusions acquired by The Associated Press, the state’s probe included on-site inspections and an examination of security camera footage that indicated the company’s efforts to conceal its stock of untagged plants and cannabis products from auditors.

Helping Hands staff were seen on tape discussing “a plan to conceal harvested cannabis” in the attic before admitting the inspectors enter the facility during one of the board’s on-site visits on December 7.

The video then showed employees and a manager “concealing cannabis” in a storage closet while the auditors “conducted their inspection elsewhere in the Facility,” according to the report. Another employee was also caught on camera on the phone discussing moving untagged cannabis clones — trimmings from a larger plant — from the production house after the auditors left.

Inspectors identified further security problems in their report, including defective key cards and unsecured doors “that could be pushed open by anyone attempting to enter” in addition to hiding the unregistered cannabis plants and goods.

Before the board can reinstate Helping Hands’ license, it must rectify the concerns at its facilities with state approval. Until then, the board’s emergency suspension order states that “no one may enter” the facility save for one designated employee in charge of watering the cannabis plants.

As the state prepares to operate its first marijuana lounges this year, the suspension was the first given by the compliance board in 2023.

According to the board’s statistics, there were more than 700 active medicinal and recreational operating licenses in Nevada as of this month.

Credits: KOLO TV