OJAI Energetics Introduces the Next Generation of CBD

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.

Pot Taxes Pay for Public-Health Approach to Drug Use Under “Game-Changing” Plan

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.

Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Spurs Pot Biz Pain, GOP Pleasure, Immigration Worries

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.

LucidMood Introduces Cannabis for the Non-User

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.”

Tokken’s App Helps Solve the Marijuana Banking Block

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.

Ask a Stoner: How Many Plants Can I Grow If I Have an MMJ Card?

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…

Leah Heise on the Power of Women — and Men — in Cannabis

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.

NCIA Director Discusses National Cannabis Priorities at Seed to Sale Show in Denver

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.

Six Things We Learned From the Mowgli Holmes Keynote at Seed to Sale

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.

Why Colorado Tokers Love Bruce Banner

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.