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Colorado marijuana dispensaries sold even more weed in 2019 than we’d predicted they would in 2019, according to recently released sales figures from the state Department of Revenue.

When last year’s overall tax revenue figure from marijuana sales was released in January (it totalled over $302 million), we took previous sales reports and DOR tax data to conservatively predict that Colorado pot shops sold approximately $1.72 billion worth of pot products in 2019. Looks like we undershot that figure, though, because current DOR numbers show that dispensaries hauled in over $1.74 billion last year — around $30 million more than we anticipated.

Colorado has somehow managed to survive six years of recreational cannabis sales without burning down. But even so, there were plenty of hot, skunky issues to cover in 2019.

This year, the Colorado Legislature further established this state as an epicenter of cannabis, passing laws that expanded medical marijuana access and legalized social use businesses, such as pot cafes and smoking lounges. The state also continued in its role as a guinea pig of regulation and cannabis culture, dealing with challenges ranging from moldy pot to equitable industry participation.

After trimming our way through the year’s stories, we landed on these as the ten biggest in 2019:

As America’s knowledge about the plant grows, the range of subjects our Stoner handles have expanded. While most of the questions we received in previous years asked such things as how to roll a joint or if it’s possible to boof marijuana (it is, but be careful), 2019 queries ventured into slightly more intellectual subjects, such as the recent vaping health crisis, or what the point of useless “indica” and “sativa” designations really is.

As we enter a new year full of unknown and new mysteries, here are five of our most interesting and popular Ask a Stoner questions in 2019.

When Alyssa Serpentini moved to Colorado twenty years ago, she didn’t just find a new home. She also found a new passion, establishing herself as an artist and sculptor by breaking cannabis stereotypes through an artistic medium.

“My goal was to show art in a different way,” Serpentini says. “Creating cannabis art that’s layered, lush and rich in colors makes it different than what you’re used to seeing. It’s different than seeing cannabis depicted in a psychedelic style, like most people imagine it.”

There are abundant examples of celebrities trying to profit off legal cannabis while the less famous sit behind bars, but some of the OGs of cannabis culture are putting their money where their mouths are. Eric Rachmany, guitarist and singer for Rebelution, is using his national solo tour as a way to raise awareness and money for those imprisoned for cannabis charges.

Proceeds from Rachmany’s concert at Summit Music Hall on Friday, November 29, will benefit the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit that helps cannabis offenders apply for clemency, clear their records and re-enter society — sometimes as members of the pot industry. We caught up with Rachmany to learn more about the cause, his connection to cannabis and some of his own close calls while touring.

The hoopla surrounding CBD has become so loud that even CBD companies are starting to get annoyed. One Colorado CBD brand recently went so far as to buy ads in New York’s Time Square to attack gimmicky products and marketing campaigns that push CBD into everything from candles to firewood.

CBDistillery, a company known for hemp-derived CBD edibles, oils, capsules, vaporizers and more, wants people to be more discerning about how they consume CBD. But where is that line drawn, and who should be leading the conversation? We chatted with CBDistillery chief marketing officer Chris Van Dusen to see what he thinks.

The only thing better than South Park making fun of the weed industry would be South Park entering the weed industry — with some integrity. We’re still trying to find out if that’s the case, but some online nuggets have us wondering…

Through Tegridy Farms, the name of a fictional cannabis brand that popped up in an episode of the show last year, South Park Studios posted a video on YouTube July 19 that makes fun of the suit-and-tie culture trying to profit from legal cannabis. The clip appears to take aim at MedMen, an American cannabis corporation that released a short video directed by Spike Jonze about cannabis prohibition and current legalization efforts.

A coalition of hemp businesses are calling out two of the country’s most popular social media platforms for what they believe are unfair advertising policies. According to the Hemp Industries Association, algorithms lumping the plant into the same category as marijuana have prevented industrial hemp companies from advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Although the 2018 federal Farm Bill legalized hemp for farming at the end of last year, there’s still plenty of confusion about the non-intoxicating version of marijuana, particularly with traditional media like television. But social media companies — a relatively new form of media — have also frustrated the emerging industry by deleting certain profiles and prohibiting hemp companies from advertising.

Nothing is that legitimate unless there’s a book about it for dummies. My dad learned how to coach Little League basketball and install Windows 97 thanks to the triangle-headed nerd who’s been on the cover of nearly 2,500 different self-help guides, aiding millions of readers. Now, the Dummies franchise has decided that cannabis is too big to avoid, bringing in former Native Roots executive Kim Casey to author a book about the plant.

The onetime communications director for Colorado’s largest dispensary chain has experience in the cannabis industry and with its constantly changing laws that few can rival, and she puts that experience to good use in her newly published Cannabis for Dummies. We caught up with Casey to learn more about the book, including which dummies will find it most helpful.

It’s not every day that hip-hop royalty comes to town for a sit-down about cannabis with Denver’s mayor, but that’s exactly what U.G.K.’s Bun B did on April 15, when he interviewed Mayor Michael Hancock about Denver’s highs and lows with legal pot. An occasional correspondent with VICE, Bun B came armed with research, asking Hancock about the city’s struggles regulating social pot use and how to right old convictions left from the War on Drugs.

Before he flew back to Houston to record his latest album, TrillStatik (and before he shot an armed intruder trying to rob his home), the Underground King sat down with us to talk about his views on cannabis legalization, finding weed on tour, reconciling with his past, and a music career that’s built hits with Jay Z and helped build Southern hip-hop into what it is today.

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