Marijuana

A reader asks our Stoner about distillate — one of the most potent forms of cannabis, and perhaps the future of the industry.

Following a 2016 event that was postponed due to a snowstorm and finally staged a month later, the 2017 Denver 4/20 Rally is scheduled to take place on the actual date of April 20 for the first time in four years. That means it should happen on a Thursday instead of a weekend, but this timing hasn’t caused promoter Santino Walter of Civic Center Park Productions to lower his expectations for the gathering, which is centered around a free concert headlined by 2 Chainz.

States with legal medical marijuana have fewer opiod-related hospitalizations per capita, according to new research published early this month in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. At the same time, those states did not see an increase in hospitalizations related to the consumption of cannabis, the study determined. Yuyan…

On April 3 governors of the four states that were first to legalize recreational marijuana —  John Hickenlooper in Colorado, Jay Inslee in Washington, Kate Brown in Oregon and Bill Walker in Alaska— sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, urging them to respect the rights of the states to pass such measures.

HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which has become the go-to spot for what is essentially investigative comedy, devoted the lion’s share of its latest episode to a shredding of current federal marijuana laws. And among the stories Oliver used to illustrate his points were several from Colorado that Westword has covered for years.

The fourth annual NoCo Hemp Expo this past weekend featured more than 130 vendors and 60 speakers, all sharing information about this amazing plant. Here are ten things we learned about hemp, from its history to its modern-day applications.

The NoCo Hemp Expo is one of the largest gatherings of hemp companies in the world. In it’s fourth year, the expo features more than 130 exhibitor businesses and more than 60 industry speakers. The expo continues in Loveland this weekend, but we got a peek Friday and found multiple companies we want to write home about. Here are the businesses we couldn’t wait to tell mom about.

Five measures concerning marijuana were introduced in Congress on March 30. Three came from Oregon lawmakers regarding taxes, baking restrictions and descheduling marijuana; Representative Jared Polis reintroduced his 2015 legislation that would essentially regulate marijuana like alcohol, and another bill that would give people in states with legalized marijuana extra…

On March 30, Representative Jared Polis re-introduced the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, as colleagues introduced four other measures in the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect states with legal marijuana from threatened action by the Trump administration.

What’s a good strain to start with if you’re just starting to grow marijuana? Our Stoner has the answer.

In an effort to curb the illegal marijuana market in Colorado, the Colorado Senate approved HB 1220 yesterday by a unanimous vote; the measure will set a new, lower limit for the number of plants a medical patient or caregiver may raise in a residential area.

President Donald Trump has a plan to stop the opioid epidemic, and (surprise!) it doesn’t involve cannabis. The president’s latest executive order lays out a blueprint for a commission that will address the nation’s opioid epidemic. Drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in this country; the American Society…

For those who require discretion, functionality and style, we give you the VaePlume, an actual vape pen. The design allows users to unscrew the top, insert a cartridge of their choice and then smoke out of the top of the pen, while the bottom is a functional writing instrument.

As industry advocates gear up to celebrate 4/20, the city’s Social Consumption Advisory Committee is starting to wrap up its work, which means that soon Denver could see legal public consumption every day of the year. But where?

Grapefruit Durban is bred from Grapefruit and Durban Poison strains — two of my favorite sativas, thanks to the instant energy they bring. Grapefruit, bred from Cinderella 99 and an unknown auto-flowering sativa, is beloved for its heavy citrus, tropical aromas and relatively easy growing process. Durban Poison, a landrace sativa I write about often, is one of Colorado’s most popular, with a sweet, skunky flavor and intense head high.

If you want to keep a marijuana meeting going smoothly, don’t mention “reefer madness.” The second-to-last meeting of Denver’s Social Consumption Advisory Committee took an interesting turn on March 24 when Dan Landes, owner of City, O’City and the soon-to-reopen Campus Lounge, and the group’s business representative, used that term — and offended some members of the committee.

Our Stoner answers a question about why some Colorado dispensary bud rooms are set up inefficiently.

Thornton is finally getting a recreational dispensary. On March 23, the Thornton City Council approved a license for the town’s first retail pot store, Rocky Mountain Remedies, but not without some hesitation from council members.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has awarded a Schedule II classification for a cannabis solution, Syndros. It’s approved to treat nausea and vomiting, which many cancer patients suffer during chemotherapy. But many patients are already using medical marijuana to handle those same problems.

Baker, a Colorado-based marketing-automated platform, isn’t the only cannabis startup gaining traction. The green rush is going strong, and investors who have never before backed a cannabis company are looking to help blaze the trail. We talked to a few experts in the industry about why investors are interested.

Veterans in Colorado’s cannabis industry are the new kids on the block for 4/20. Since there’s no High Times event set for April 20 in Colorado this year, local companies are coming together to create their own 4/20 commemoration that will be representative of the state’s marijuana industry. The Green Solution, The Hemp Connoisseur (THC) magazine, incredibles and New Earth Muziq are partnering to host 420 on the Block in the 1000 to 1200 blocks of Broadway on Thursday, April 20.

Ten days before the NoCo Hemp Expo, Governor John Hickenlooper has signed a bill that will create a group to study the feasibility of using hemp products in animal feed, working under the commissioner of agriculture.