Washington DC in fog

First the Senate’s bill to legalize medical pot federally. Now the House’s

The House now has its own version of a historic piece of legislation that would legalize medical marijuana at a federal level. A bipartisan group introduced the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act in the Senate earlier this month, hoping to remove federal prohibitions on medical marijuana in the states where it is already legal. A bipartisan group in the House introduced a companion bill on Tuesday.

Senate bill seeks to end federal medical marijuana restrictions

Senate bill seeks to lift federal MMJ restrictions

Two Democratic senators and a possible Republican presidential candidate joined forces Tuesday to push a bill to remove federal prohibitions on medical marijuana in 23 states where it’s already legal. The measure also would reclassify marijuana to Schedule II.

Marijuana research in veterans wins federal backing

Sue Sisley: This is why medical pot research needs state cash … for now

Two weeks ago, the Colorado Board of Health awarded grants totaling $8 million to research marijuana’s medical potential. The studies funded by these grants will help evaluate marijuana’s safety and efficacy in treating epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The money is coming from Colorado’s medical marijuana patient fees and new taxes on recreational pot. And while a group of medical marijuana patients announced a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s funding of marijuana research, I — one of those researchers who was awarded $2 million for our PTSD study — am here to tell them why state money is needed for this kind of research in 2014-2015.

Congress blocks DC marijuana legalization with spending bill

Congress blocks D.C. marijuana legalization in spending bill

Congress reached a $1.1 trillion spending deal that also bars the District from legalizing marijuana. The move by Congress followed a familiar playbook when District leaders try to enact social policies that conservatives on Capitol Hill disagree with.

Amsterdam Cannabis Cup opens doors for Day 2, but crowd dwindles

Cannabis Cup: 7 surprising differences between Amsterdam and Denver

The irony of coming from Colorado to be a judge of coffee shop cannabis at an unexpectedly transformed Amsterdam Cannabis Cup wasn’t lost on me, or most people I talked to over the five-day trip. Why travel 5,000 miles to smoke marijuana when it’s legal right down the street?

Medical marijuana researcher Dr. Sue Sisley

Sue Sisley’s pot-and-PTSD study isn’t yet funded, but she’s still celebrating

Scientist Sue Sisley is best known for her very public firing by the University of Arizona — but she hopes to soon be better known as the researcher who is testing the efficacy of marijuana as a treatment to post-traumatic stress disorder in American veterans. And while Sisley is a finalist for a historic Colorado grant meant for cannabis research, she hasn’t yet received the grant — regardless of incorrect reports in the media.

The Las Vegas Strip (Jacob Kepler, Bloomberg )

Nevada reciprocity: Have an MMJ card? You can buy pot in Vegas in 2015

Marijuana activists are already planning the 2016 campaign to regulate and legalize the sale of recreational pot in Nevada, home to Las Vegas, one of the world’s biggest tourism destinations. But some tourists won’t have to wait that long to legally buy weed in Las Vegas thanks to the most liberal reciprocity law in the United States.

A woman holds a joint at a recent 4/20 Rally in Denver. (John Moore, Getty Images)

Pollack: ‘Don’t let pot just be another yuppie lifestyle accoutrement’

When I saw a couple of snotty rich young ambitious marijuana marketing types in The New York Times yesterday claiming they were “weeding out the stoners” and that they “want to show the world that normal, professional, successful people consume cannabis,” I got pissed, because I am a stoner. And I was especially pissed because I was traveling on business and couldn’t do what I usually do when I get pissed, which is smoke weed. Or vaporize it. Or eat a candy. Regardless, I was an angry pothead. More of writer Neal Pollack’s column for The Cannabist:

UNLV courts well-known pot researcher to study PTSD treatment

UNLV courts well-known marijuana researcher to study PTSD treatment

Nevada’s state and federal lawmakers have been working to bring medical marijuana researcher Dr. Sue Sisley to the university to conduct a pilot study on the safety and efficacy of marijuana on veterans with chronic and treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lucia Topolansky (Matilde Campodonico, AP)

Portrait of a First Lady: Real talk with Uruguayan senator Lucia Topolansky

If Uruguayan President José Mujica truly is “the world’s most radical president,” as a recent Guardian profile suggests, then his wife Lucia Topolansky is surely the world’s most radical First Lady. There is, of course, a reason Mujica and Topolansky found each other in the first place — and have remained together over the years that have brought both hardship and triumph. Our interview with Topolansky:

Colorado marijuana growers at odds over revised production caps

Colorado marijuana growers at odds over revised production rules

Colorado’s pot regulators are trying to make sure the state’s marijuana growers aren’t producing more pot than they can legally sell — a hedge against Colorado-grown pot ending up in states where it’s not legal.

My sober experience with marijuana at Denver's biggest music festival

Pot edibles can’t use ski-run signage

Green circles, blue squares and black diamonds have directed skiers for half a century. So it’s easy to understand how a Colorado task force could suggest such widely understood symbols when it came to ranking the potency of marijuana edibles. But Colorado’s ski industry lobbied against the plan.

Opinion: Indian youth entangled in Colorado's marijuana experiment

Opinion: Indian youth entangled in Colorado’s marijuana experiment

I’m on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a seven-hour drive from Denver. “Our youth are abusing marijuana as never before. The stuff they’re smoking and eating comes to our kids still in its packaging from Denver,” says attorney general for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Tate Means.

Arizona health director adds PTSD to medical marijuana conditions list

PTSD added to Arizona medical marijuana conditions list

Arizona residents who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder will be able to legally use marijuana to help alleviate their symptoms under a decision announced Wednesday, July 9, by the state’s top health official.