Ep. 49 – He made a weed documentary; He covers pot politics

Featured guests: “Rolling Papers” director Mitch Dickman and Denver Post reporter Joey Bunch, who covers politics and the Colorado legislature.

[podcast]

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

• Cannabis-focused mainstream journalism has been growing in the past couple of years since Colorado’s legal sales started — what’s ahead for news pursuits in cannabis?

• We get caught up on the rollout of the “Rolling Papers” documentary and what’s happening with on-demand services (including an upcoming debut on Netflix this spring).

• What’s up with Colorado marijuana legislation in 2016? Learn about some of the pesticide-related policies that are under development.

• Will the ban on public consumption of cannabis ever end?

• Who are the major cannabis players in the statehouse, and how should cannabis consumers make their voices heard with their representatives?

TOP MARIJUANA NEWS

Cannabis Cup leaves Colorado: High Times magazine’s flagship event, the U.S. Cannabis Cup, is relocating from Colorado to California next month, The Cannabist has learned. Colorado’s first-of-its-kind marijuana laws allowed the event to grow into the largest High Times Cannabis Cup in the world, drawing up to 35,000 visitors each day in April 2015 at the Denver Mart in Adams County. But after Adams County commissioners last month rejected High Times’ permit for this year’s U.S. Cannabis Cup, organizers announced a tentative move about 100 miles south to Pueblo — where the Cup ran into more regulatory issues and concerns over timing. –Report by The Cannabist’s Ricardo Baca

Weed and workouts — these athletes swear by it: Given the long-standing illegality of marijuana, there is not a large body of evidence about its effects on the human body. However, I spoke with a professional athlete who offered his own large body as testimony to the benefits of engaging in physical activity while stoned. Activity hardly gets more physical — and grueling — than professional wrestling, and at 45, Rob Van Dam not only has been at it for well over two decades, he has performed at the highest level it has to offer. Van Dam and other athletes from the NBA and pro snowboarding are advocating that cannabis has a place in physical fitness. –Report by The Washington Post’s Des Bieler

POT QUIZ

Test your current-events knowledge on a major city newspaper growing its own weed; UFC fighters; and pot on the presidential campaign trail.