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The cannabis industry has no shortage of entrepreneurs fighting to gain a toehold in the field, but one of the industry’s most well-known names got there almost by accident. Ricardo Baca had been covering music for the Denver Post for over a decade when Colorado legalized the plant recreationally, and he was a bit befuddled when his bosses asked him to lead what would become the Cannabist , the first cannabis vertical for a major daily newspaper.

After talking with his mother and wife, though, Baca eventually took the job, becoming the editor-in-chief of the Cannabist and, in the process, a go-to expert for national media outlets. He still has that role after leaving the Post at the end of 2016 to start Grasslands, a full-service agency for cannabis businesses. Baca writes about pot for such media outlets as Esquire and the Daily Beast, and when United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions repealed the Cole Memorandum in January, Baca was a natural to talk about the move on MSNBC.

Mason Tvert, a key figure in the passage of Amendment 64, the 2012 measure that legalized limited recreational marijuana sales, and the Denver pot-legalization regulation that preceded it, is leaving his post as communications director for the national Marijuana Policy Project in favor of a similar position at VS Strategies, a Denver-based consulting firm that’s become a national powerhouse.

After White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that we should expect “greater enforcement” of marijuana laws, particularly regarding recreational sales, Colorado politicians responded.

Governor John Hickenlooper appeared on MSNBC on February 24 and then on Meet the Press on February 26 when he was in Washington, D.C., for a governors’ conference. During both appearances, he noted that he did not approve of marijuana legalization when it passed in Colorado, adding that he continues to be wary despite the fact that legal marijuana raked in over $1.3 billion in sales last year in this state alone.

A photo of The Grass Station on Green Friday as shared by CBS4. Additional images and videos below.

Last week, we noted that marijuana businesses were embracing Black Friday, with The Grass Station leading the charge via $50 ounces for the first sixteen customers on November 26-28. And while the promotion was presumably aimed at local customers, the whole “Green Friday” concept definitely got national exposure.

Senator Pat Roberts and opponent Greg Orman at a debate this weekend.


For years, marijuana advocates have warned folks from Colorado to think twice before taking cannabis over the state line to Kansas, which has some of the toughest weed-related penalties in the country and has been repeatedly accused of pot profiling. So it’s something of a surprise to discover that the two candidates in a suddenly competitive Kansas senatorial race — incumbent Pat Roberts and independent upstart Greg Orman — both have problems with federal marijuana policies.

Tweets and more below.

Better late than never: Today, Washington launched limited recreational marijuana sales for adults age 21 and over, just over six months after Colorado did likewise. And naturally, Twitter Nation wanted to talk about it.
Look below to see the twenty most memorable tweets we found, with authors ranging from a high-profile celebrity to just plain folks.


The press used to be so well-respected in this country that they were referred to as “the fourth estate”. In February 1891, Oscar Wilde wrote, “Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three…We are dominated by Journalism.”
Today, well over a century later, with the advent of 24-hour cable news stations, AM talk radio hero worship, and the internet, the media holds more power than ever.

TokeoftheTown.com

In an unprecedented move that began late last week, and continued over the holiday Labor Day weekend, the Obama Administration, and more specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice ended their silence on the issue of medical marijuana on the state level, announcing that they would not use the courts to challenge state laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington, as long as those states continue to adhere to a strict set of guidelines.
Though many critics, professional or genuine, are carelessly comparing this latest announcement to the 2009 Ogden Memo, those on the front lines of the effort to legalize cannabis know that last Thursday’s announcement, and some follow-up and clarifying releases over the weekend, mark a positive and necessary step towards that goal.

Wikipedia commons.

Last Friday, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin was suspended by the NFL for a violation of their substance abuse policy, the sixth member of the squad to receive such punishment since 2010.
Since the NFL can’t disclose why, Irvin did as teammate Richard Sherman did before him: hint that the violation was for taking Adderall without disclosing it. While heavily prescribed, Adderall isn’t without risks, but it certainly can have it’s performance-enhancing advantages — same as any number of drugs that areallowed in sports. If the league is going are going to be hypocrites, then why not allow one of the best natural performance enhancers out there: marijuana?

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

By Ron Marczyk, RN

“It is clear that we’re in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana.” ~ Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske
Let’s start that serious national conversation about marijuana! Seventy-five years late is better than never. Why now? Because marijuana legalization support is growing and is more popular by several points then any politician in the country! 
  
This new marijuana majority has the momentum, the votes and the moral high ground; if you support prohibition you are showing your age and your lack of medical science knowledge and you shouldn’t be in office making decisions that affect young people 18-34 who are the new face of America.
 
This new marijuana spring just gave birth to legalization.
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