The Cannabist Network

Recent posts by The Cannabist Network

The DL on Joe Rogan’s new Comedy Central special ‘Rocky Mountain High’

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Comedian Joe Rogan returns to Comedy Central Nov. 21 in a one-hour special filmed at the downtown Denver Comedy Works. His affection for Denver and, particularly, for the city’s newfound embrace of legal recreational weed, are recurring themes.

Thanksgiving, err, Danksgiving recipe: Magic marinade for your THC turkey

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Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when Americans feast themselves silly on turkey and pass out on the couch while watching football, so we’ve upped the ante and created a marijuana menu so sedating that you may not arise from your slumber until it’s time for the Super Bowl.

Boulder council to revisit ban on pot shops selling their own “merch”

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Boulder city code bans retail marijuana establishments from selling or giving away any products with their name or logo. Several Boulder City Council members believe it is time to reconsider that provision, which appears to be unique to Boulder among Colorado towns that allow recreational marijuana sales.

Denver police captain punished for ripping homeless man’s pot sign

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Denver Police Capt. Joe Black will lose four days of time off for violating a homeless man’s First Amendment right to free speech after destroying his sign that read “Need weed,” according to a disciplinary letter obtained by The Denver Post.

Cannabis oils: Oklahoma company wants to expand e-cigarette options

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The growing availability of legal pot opens the door for Oklahoma-based Palm Beach Vapors to market a method for producing a cannabis oil product that can be inhaled through a common e-cigarette.

“Green Mile” marketing plan stirs pot on Denver’s Antique Row

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Should a stretch of South Broadway in Denver embrace its cannabis culture through creation of a “Green Mile” business association and marketing campaign? The question is dividing pot purveyors and owners of the long-standing antique stores that share the same stretches of Broadway.

‘Sexy Monkey’: Man pleads guilty in Denver synthetic pot network

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A Florida man pleaded guilty Friday in Denver’s federal court to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges related to the selling of synthetic pot across the Denver metro area under product names like “Sexy Monkey” and “Crazy Clown.” Daniel Bernier, 28, faces up to 10 years of prison, five years of supervised release and has agreed to forfeit $1.8 million as well as three properties in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Gravity bong sends Colorado high school into modified lockdown

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Adams City High School was put on modified lockdown Friday morning after a student’s gravity bong — a device that uses the force of gravity to pull large amounts of cannabis into a chamber — released smoke in a classroom, officials said.

More marijuana reality TV on its way: ‘Pot Barons of Colorado’ on MSNBC

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Because legalized recreational marijuana has created a boom not only in the weed industry but in the weed TV documentary (or pot-doc) industry, another six-parter is coming our way this month. MSNBC premieres “Pot Barons of Colorado” on Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. (A “sneak peak” airs Nov. 28 at 10 p.m.)

Denver pot shops want to rebrand this stretch of road as ‘The Green Mile’

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Long a go-to location for shoppers of antiques, Denver’s South Broadway commercial corridor is taking on a greener hue. The concentration of recreational marijuana shops and medical cannabis dispensaries on Broadway has owners banding together to promote what’s being called the “Green Mile.”

Northglenn voters OK 2 percent pot tax hike; proceeds for public facilities

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Northglenn City Council will start collecting marijuana taxes that could be used to build a new recreation center after voters agreed to a 2 percent tax increase on the sale of medical and retail marijuana and related products sold in the city.

Lakewood voters say no to recreational marijuana sales

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More than 54 percent of Lakewood voters said they did not want the city to have recreational marijuana shops. Amendment 64 allowed local governments to set their own rules for marijuana businesses, including banning them entirely within their borders.

6 things to know if weed is now legal where you live

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For those living in Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C.: Welcome to the legalization club. Here’s some intel from Colorado and Washington state on what could be ahead for you.

Federal Heights voters OK medical marijuana, reject retail pot shops

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Retail marijuana stores will not be allowed to operate in Federal Heights, but voters narrowly agreed to allow medical marijuana businesses after approximately 1,600 ballots were counted in the city by Wednesday morning.

Election 2014: Marijuana legalized in Oregon, Alaska, Washington D.C.; Florida MMJ falls short

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Voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia legalized the use of recreational pot, elating marijuana activists who hope to extend their winning streak across the country.

Analysis: What four crucial votes mean for U.S. legalization momentum

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Today’s election will determine the direction of future marijuana legalization efforts in the U.S. If all or most of the measures fail in Florida, Oregon, Alaska and D.C., legalization proponents may need to take a step back and reassess their strategies for the 2016 presidential election year.

Colorado budget plan: Lawmakers to decide fate of marijuana tax rebate

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A day before voters decide whether to give him another term, Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday unveiled a $26.8 billion state budget proposal for the next fiscal year that includes about $200 million in rebates to taxpayers.

We’re more likely to catch Ebola than to receive pot-laced Halloween candy

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You’re more likely to contract Ebola in the U.S. than you are to get marijuana-laced candy in your Halloween basket. Despite literally hundreds of wide-eyed press accounts last week of the “danger” of marijuana-infused Halloween candy, we are three days into November without a single instance of Halloween-related pot poisoning coming to light. None. Zero. Zilch.

Florida seniors’ personal interest in MMJ pivotal

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The debate over legalizing medical marijuana in Florida constantly generates talk of young people potentially flooding the polls. But seniors are the most reliable voters and could be key to the outcome of the measure.

Pot-smoking ban on Denver’s 16th Street Mall gateway to tobacco ban

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Pot smoking has been banned from Denver’s 16th Street Mall. So why not tobacco? Local civic and business leaders are floating a plan to stop all smoking on the mall, an extension of an ordinance passed last year by the Denver City Council that prohibits the use or display of marijuana on the mall and in city parks.

Opinion: ‘Halloweed’ candy hysteria is unfounded and insulting, so let’s stop

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Opinion: There has been an inordinate level of fear, and perhaps confusion, flooding the news about the high risk of “Halloweed” candy being given to our children, and it threatens to take away a great holiday from not only those of us in the industry but families from around our community. It gives us one more reason to doubt our humanity, to close doors and to fuel our distrust of our neighbors and friends.

Medical marijuana could be spoiler in Florida governor’s race

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Florida’s race for governor has focused on the candidates’ integrity and their credit or blame for the economy. But an issue seldom mentioned on the campaign trail could play the spoiler in the razor-thin contest.

Attention on young voters in Oregon, Alaska push to legalize marijuana

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From slick video ads online to scrawled chalk messages on college campus sidewalks, intense get-out-the-vote drives are mobilizing in Oregon and Alaska. Young voters usually turn out during presidential years like 2012, but stay home during midterms, when the electorate skews older and more conservative.

Opinion: A personal story of pot addiction from a legalization advocate

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On a warm Seattle summer evening in 1978, my wife wanted to talk about my increasingly frequent pot smoking: “I feel you’ve abandoned me, that the person I married — even when you’re sitting next to me on the couch — is not there.”

Rachel Maddow, live from Colorado: ‘I’m not saying I’ve never inhaled …’

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Rachel Maddow will host her MSNBC show from Denver on Oct. 28 with a lineup of local political candidates, political analysts — and a pot dispensary owner. While in Colorado, Maddow did the obligatory tour of a weed dispensary. “I’m not saying I’ve never inhaled, it’s never been an important part of my life.”

Weed business incubator in works, with bank option too

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Advanced Cannabis Solutions has acquired a former bank building in south Denver with plans to turn it into the industry’s first business incubator. And if the state’s plan for a cooperative financial institution gets off the ground, then ACS hopes to have its first location.

How Colorado gov candidate Mike Dunafon charmed hip-hop stars

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The hip-hop presence in unaffiliated candidate Mike Dunafon’s bid for Colorado governor is significant. In recent weeks, Wyclef Jean and Snoop Dogg have individually announced their support of Dunafon. But why are these rappers drawn to Dunafon, who’s more rural than urban?

CNN’s ‘High Profits’: Docu-series will cover cannabis in Colorado ski towns

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CNN’s newest original series, joining the lineup alongside Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown,” trains its cameras on two Colorado marijuana entrepreneurs. “High Profits” follows Brian Rogers and Caitlin McGuire, “two business-minded, dream seeking, relentless visionaries” working to franchise legal recreational marijuana.

Hundreds of ATMs in legal pot shops unplugged

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Hundreds of cashless ATM machines located in medical marijuana dispensaries in at least two states — the life-blood of businesses otherwise forced to work in cash — were shut down Wednesday, just days after similar machines were unplugged from recreational shops.

Are federal banking regulators warming up to Colo. pot businesses?

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The strained relationship between federal banking regulators and Colorado banks wanting to work with legal-marijuana businesses is easing, the first tangible signal of what many industry watchers hope is a wholesale reversal of a hard-nosed stance against the banking relationship.

In two years, more than 550 W.Va. coal miners failed drug tests for Rx, pot

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In the last two years, more than 550 West Virginia coal miners have temporarily lost their mining certifications because they failed a drug test. State Office of Miner’s Health, Safety and Training Eugene White released the numbers to a legislative panel Monday.

Taxpayer refund ahead for Colo. pot revenue?

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Gov. John Hickenlooper is preparing to release his state budget for the next fiscal year on Nov. 3 — the day before Election Day — raising the stakes on whether he will support returning money to taxpayers. The potential for a refund on pot taxes via TABOR adds a complication in state budget negotiations.

Proposed pot edibles ban shows discord

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Colorado’s health department proposed an industry-spinning ban on the sales of nearly all forms of edible marijuana at recreational pot shops on Monday but then quickly backed away from the plan amid an industry outcry and questions over legality. More on the proposed Colorado marijuana edibles ban:

Colorado health officials want to ban most types of pot-infused edibles

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Colorado health officials want to ban many edible forms of marijuana, including brownies, cookies and most candies, limiting legal sales of pot-infused food to lozenges and some liquids.

New rules: What should infused edibles look like?

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Marijuana regulators in Colorado have already tightened rules on popular forms of edible pot by requiring manufacturers to make it easier to tell how much of the drug consumers are eating. Now they’re writing new rules on what the products themselves look like.

Opinion: Brandon Coats ‘was fired for legally relieving pain in his own home’

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Opinion: “When it comes to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens of Colorado, I believe we all share a fundamental value: that those who are ill should not have to choose between their doctors’ recommended medical treatment and earning a living. Unfortunately, a recent case heard in the Colorado Supreme Court threatens to undermine this fundamental value.”