Marijuana

Programs like D.A.R.E. and the Just Say No campaign might not have worked to keep the nation’s youth from smoking pot, but it’s possiblet that legalization could.

The Colorado Department of Revenue just released its final statistics for 2016, the state’s third year of recreational marijuana sales. And taken together, MMJ and recreational marijuana accounted for $1.3 billion in sales, and nearly $200 million in state tax revenue.

What’s better than getting your honey a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day? Getting cannabis chocolates for your honey on Valentine’s Day. Here’s our rundown of some of the best chocolates in town:

Coloradoans are known for our commitment to sustainable practices and organic products, but this California CBD company has many of us beat. OJAI Energetics is the first company in the hemp space to get certification as a B Corporation — a designation for companies who are leaders of global movements and use business as a force for good.

This week, the Colorado Department of Human Services, in conjunction with Governor John Hickenlooper’s office, formally requested that the General Assembly allocate more than $6 million annually from the state’s marijuana-tax cash fund for a new program that would offer help to chronic drug users as opposed to criminalizing them. Art Way, senior director for criminal-justice reform for the national Drug Policy Alliance and director of the organization’s Colorado chapter, which worked closely with state agencies in crafting the proposal (it’s on view below), sees the impact of this approach as potentially revolutionary for those struggling with addictions to heroin and other heavy narcotics.

Recently released stats from Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division for the first six months of 2016 reflect what we already knew: cannabis cultivation and sales are on the rise.

The confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General in the administration of President Donald Trump was touted by Senator Cory Gardner, who voted to confirm the former Alabama senator shortly after doing likewise for new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a donor, along with her family, of nearly $50,000 to the Colorado Republican. But the news isn’t being cheered by Colorado’s other senator, Democrat Michael Bennet, or marijuana-industry representatives fearful that Sessions, a vocal pot hater, will soon order a crackdown on cannabis sales in Colorado and beyond.

At the second meeting of Denver’s social consumption advisory council, on February 8, members addressed multiple issues, including a few carried over from last month and others that will come up again at the next meeting. Here’s a rundown of the top ten topics.

Shortly after the passage of Initiative 300, Colorado’s Liquor Enforcement Division adopted a new rule that prohibits any business with a liquor license from also applying for a social-consumption license. On February 3, five plaintiffs filed suit against the state over that rule.

Sage is a very versatile strain, perfect for smoking while listening to Anderson .Paak.

In states like Colorado, where the recreational use of cannabis is legal, the population is divided into two categories: those who use marijuana, and everyone else. LucidMood is hoping to bridge that gap with a product it bills a “cannabis for the rest of us.”

Banking issues have been a major stumbling block for the cannabis industry, with banks refusing to work with marijuana-related companies for fear of coming under scrutiny of federal regulators. So far, attempts to clear up that conflict have gone nowhere in Congress — but now a former federal government employee has come up with a partial solution: Tokken, an app for both customers and dispensaries that was recently named a finalist for the 2017 SXSW Interactive Innovation Award.

Dear Stoner: What is the number of plants one can cultivate with a medical marijuana card? I’ve heard you can have up to 75 if you’re a caregiver, but I’ve also heard Colorado will be setting a state maximum of twelve. Pete Dear Pete: Current medical marijuana caregivers can actually…

As we wind down from Sunday’s Super bowl, here are ten NFL players who have voiced support for marijuana.

Three years ago, a group of women came together in Denver to form their own cannabis community and they called it Women Grow. Now, the organization has more than 1,500 members in 35 states and each group gets together the first Thursday of every month.

Women Grow, founded in Denver in 2014, was created to connect entrepreneurs in cannabis with other thought leaders and empower the next generation of cannabis businesswomen.  The organization is hosting its annual Leadership Summit in Denver right now; women and men from all over the country came to share their stories, network and learn more about what it means to be an entrepreneur in cannabis. We sat down Women Grow CEO Leah Heise to learn more about the organization and her plans for 2017.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may be the next addition to Colorado’s list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.  On January 30, the state Senate committee on Veterans and Military Affairs heard arguments for SB 17-17, the Post-Traumatic Stress Bill, before a standing-room-only crowd.

Advocacy for cannabis at the national level is more important now than ever before, said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, as he opened NCIA’s Seed to Sale show on January 31. NCIA ensures that cannabis-industry professionals have a voice and a seat at the table in Washington D.C., Smith noted as he explained not only how NCIA represents the cannabis industry in D.C., but how the organization plans to protect cannabis at the national level — and how the industry in Colorado can help.

Mowgli Holmes gave the keynote at the Seed to Sale Show in Denver on February 1, and he taught the crowd a thing or two — or six — about cannabis. Holmes is the co-founder and chief scientific officer at Phylos Bioscience, which has created a web of over a thousand cannabis strains. The web links strains that are in the same family and provide growers and consumers with scientific knowledge about the plant that has never been documented in one place before.

Superheroes are all the rage these days. But before Hollywood started cashing in on characters that most of us never knew existed, the weed world was already starting the party, with strains like Kryptonite, Harlequin and Thor’s Hammer. Yet the most popular superhero strain is actually named after a skinny alter ego: Bruce Banner. Like the Incredible Hulk he morphs into when angry, Bruce Banner’s namesake strain comes in multiple forms and can obliterate a man’s face with one punch.

We’ve just learned about the death of Laura Kriho, one of Colorado’s most outspoken advocates for cannabis reform. As the woman behind the Cannabis Therapy Institute, she championed the medicinal attributes of marijuana, and while her efforts on behalf of Legalize 2012 ultimately came in second place behind the successful Amendment 64 campaign,  her tireless dedication to pushing for ever-more progressive cannabis policies was as inspirational as it was important.

Since it founded a medicinal grow in 2009, Colorado Harvest Company has had a commitment to clean cannabis, adding a recreational operation in 2014 and always improving on a well-oiled system. That system has earned Colorado Harvest Company a growing reputation for quality.As more and more states legalize marijuana, Colorado Harvest hosts many out-of-state visitors who want to observe grow operations.