The Cannabist Network

Recent posts by The Cannabist Network

2 Chainz talks about living 4/20 every day, taking on Nancy Grace (interview)

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Rapper 2 Chainz talks about the significance of 4/20, his interview with Nancy Grace, and who the ambassadors of weed culture are in music.

Renewed effort to place PTSD on Colorado’s medical marijuana list

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Colorado may add post-traumatic stress disorder as a condition to be treated with medical marijuana — a dramatic turnaround after years of rejecting appeals to make PTSD the first ailment added to the state’s medical-pot program since it was approved by voters in 2000.

Lab: Edibles’ potency more accurate than a year ago, but buyer beware

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Cannabis consumers in Colorado can trust the potency claims printed on the packaging of marijuana-infused edibles more than they could one year ago, according to new lab testing data commissioned by The Denver Post.

Federal Reserve president gets scoop on Colorado pot banking woes

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Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City president Esther George on Thursday listened intently to a group of 20 businessmen, bankers and government officials who talked about the troubling lack of banking services available to the marijuana industry, but offered little indication about how it could be resolved.

Discreet couriers keep precious cannabis cargo on move in Colorado

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Couriers do more than carry pot for Colorado’s network of more than 800 growers, manufacturers, dispensers and laboratories. The industry remains mostly cash only, so logo-free transport vehicles are considered an asset.

Opinion: This is why employers should stop drug testing for marijuana now

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Opinion: Marijuana has been tried by nearly half of all Americans at some point in their lives, is already legal in some form in 23 states, and four states allow recreational use. There’s one thing that needs to disappear along with the prohibition of marijuana: employee drug testing.

Colorado bill on pregnancy pot warnings questioned

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A bill to warn pregnant women about the dangers of using marijuana had some Colorado legislators on Monday questioning whether that would be constitutional, since the mandate from voters who passed 2012’s Amendment 64 was to regulate pot like alcohol.

Editorial: Let voters decide on Colorado marijuana tax refund

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Two-thirds of Colorado voters approved excise and sales taxes on retail marijuana two years ago with Proposition AA, with the expectation of $70 million in revenue per year. Now it seems voters will have to act again if the state is going to be able to keep any of the first fiscal year’s worth of marijuana state tax collections.

Big need for marijuana banking, yet Congress has ‘no appetite’ to fix issue

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Congress doesn’t have the appetite to deal with the conflict between federal and state laws that has caused a banking crisis for the burgeoning marijuana industry in Colorado and other states, according to a member of a House committee that would take up the debate.

Colorado lawmaker predicts ‘we will see cannabis clubs similar to bars’

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Q&A with Colorado state Rep. Jonathan Singer about marijuana issues, from regulating edibles and public use to the potential impact of federal rescheduling. READ THE FULL Q&A

Colorado expo offers hemp products, but no viable seeds or plants allowed

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More than 70 vendors will sell hemp-based products in Loveland on Saturday at the NoCo Hemp Expo, but don’t expect to buy any viable seeds or live plants.

Rick Ross will headline Denver’s mammoth (and free) 420 Rally

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Rick Ross will headline the big 4/20 Rally in Civic Center this year, organizers have announced. In 2014, the event brought tens of thousands of people to Civic Center for a lineup of Wyclef Jean, B.o.B and Denver’s FL of the Foodchain.

April 19: CNN’s ‘High Profits’ tracks booming bud biz in Colo. ski towns

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For viewers beyond Colorado, “High Profits” on CNN, an eight-part docu-series premiering April 19, may seem an outrageous curiosity. For locals accustomed to media scrutiny of the state’s legalized recreational weed industry, it’s just one more reality TV effort, hyped for suspense.

Pot industry group lobbying Congress doesn’t want Tommy Chong’s help

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The National Cannabis Industry Association wants Congress to see pot smokers as respectable professionals, not stoned slackers, so they decided against having “Cheech and Chong” actor Tommy Chong represent the group as a celebrity marijuana activist on a Hill visit scheduled for late April.

Video: State inspectors pop in on Colorado pot shops

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Owners of Colorado marijuana businesses can expect inspections to happen in the state’s regulated market, and Denver Relief co-owner Ean Seeb talks with Cannabist editor Ricardo Baca about the recent crackdown and surprise inspections over improper use of pesticides.

Editorial: Don’t give up on solving riddle for easily identifiable edibles

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The state Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee dug in its heels Wednesday and, with a commendable 5-0 vote, gave a resounding “no” to a proposal to water down current requirements that marijuana edible products be easily identifiable — even outside their packaging.

Colorado AG urges U.S. Supreme Court to reject states’ pot lawsuit

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Arguing that two neighboring states are dangerously attempting “to selectively manipulate Colorado’s marijuana laws,” state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman on Friday defended Colorado’s marijuana legalization to the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Seeds of change, indeed: D.C. has unprecedented pot-growing giveaway

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The District of Columbia witnessed a massive, public drug deal on Thursday — and for those involved, it was quite a bargain. With D.C. police officers looking on, hundreds of city residents lined up and then walked away from a restaurant carrying plastic baggies filled with marijuana seeds.

Colorado residents upset over pot stench from Basalt-area grow facility

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Skunk-like odors wafting from a Basalt-area marijuana cultivation facility have upset nearby neighbors and caused county commissioners to issue a stern warning to the proprietors behind the stench.

Denver still sorting 4/20 rally permit for Civic Center

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Denver parks officials have denied a permit for a 4/20 rally to an organizer who had been given first consideration for Civic Center on April 20. Now the city is working out details with a second applicant who had been shut out.

Colorado lawmakers opt to keep planned changes for marijuana edibles

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A state senate bill concerning the appearance of marijuana edibles died Wednesday in committee, where it was voted down unanimously. Senate Bill 136, sponsored by Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, and Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, would have repealed a 2014 requirement that marijuana edibles be “clearly identifiable, when practicable, with a standard symbol.”

32 indicted in massive Colorado marijuana trafficking investigation

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Colorado officials have won indictments against 32 people accused of being part of a multimillion-dollar scheme to grow marijuana illegally in Colorado and ship it out of state.

Plants at six Denver grows on hold over pesticide use

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The city of Denver has ordered a hold on some marijuana plants from six grow facilities after the discovery that pesticides may have been improperly used.

Senate’s bipartisan medical marijuana bill gains additional sponsors

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With little fanfare, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has thrown her support behind a historic Senate bill to comprehensively reform medical marijuana at the federal level.

‘Rolling Papers’ film on legal pot in Colorado gets distribution deal

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“Rolling Papers,” Mitch Dickman’s documentary about the dawn of legal marijuana in Colorado and The Denver Post’s coverage of the related cultural and business developments during the first year, has landed a worldwide distributor.

Colorado pot documentary ‘Rolling Papers’ gets its close-up at SXSW

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Colorado cannabis documentary “Rolling Papers,” directed by Mitch Dickman, has its world premiere March 15 at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It’s more than a snicker fest about cannabis, offering a telling glimpse into the state of journalism.

West Colfax pot store application shot down by Denver in rare denial

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Denver has denied a license to a company seeking to open a recreational marijuana store at the site of the old Pig N’ Whistle motel on West Colfax Avenue, ruling that the store “will adversely impact the health, welfare and public safety” of the neighborhood.

Opinion: Global illicit drug economy is adapting to pot legalization

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With multiple state marijuana initiatives winning voter approval in the 2014 midterm elections, legalization proponents are already hard at work in states like California, where passage of a comprehensive initiative in 2016 could provide the policy “legitimacy” reformers are seeking.