Author Kate Simmons

For a segment called “The Pot Vote” that aired Sunday, October 30, 60 Minutes came to Colorado to investigate the marijuana boom. The piece began as a typical new-industry-brings-ups-and-downs-to-community piece that swung not so subtly to pose an ominous — and misrepresentative — picture of what’s going on in this state’s cannabis industry.

Jonathan LaPook, a two-time Emmy-winning journalist with an M.D. to boot, begins the segment by promising to show “what’s working and what’s not” in Colorado, the first state to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, then briefly discusses how attitudes toward legalization have shifted in recent years.

Ashley Kilroy

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced Monday that Ashley Kilroy will be adding a new job title to her resume.

In addition to serving as the city’s executive director of the Office of Marijuana Policy, she will replace Stacie Loucks as the director of Excise and Licenses, the central business-licensing department for the City and County of Denver. The Office of Marijuana Policy will become a division of Excise and Licenses, which has long handled licensing for dispensaries.

Denver has learned a lot about implementing marijuana policy — and officials from around the world have been flocking here to study this city’s secrets.

The Mile High City hosted its second annualMarijuana Management Symposium on Thursday, October 27, welcoming policy makers, police personnel and reps from cannabis companies from across the country, as well as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Uruguay for discussions about what Denver did right — and what they can learn from our mistakes.

The question on the table: How to create a more sustainable cannabis industry? Over 200 people gathered at the Colorado Convention Center for Denver’s Cannabis Sustainability Symposium on October 26, attending panels, hosted by the Organic Cannabis Association, on a variety of issues related to environmental efficiency and discussing how to best tackle sustainability issues.

People talk about the early days of Colorado’s marijuana industry as though they were the wild, wild West — but instead of the 1880s, they’re remembering an era that isn’t even a decade old. “In 2009 I was a college kid,” says Max Montrose. “I was young and dumb, and I was a budtender. Now I’m running my own cannabis-education company.”

After spending the past seven years working in the cannabis business and with the pro-legalization movement, Montrose now devotes his days to educating people about marijuana. He’s president of the Trichome Institute, a Colorado-based company dedicated to science, education and certification.

Which states will be the next to legalize recreational marijuana? Five states have ballot measures that, if passed, would allow the use of recreational pot. Here’s a rundown of the latest polling:

Arizona: Too close to call
44 percent for, 45 percent against

Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute of Public Policy and ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication teamed up with theArizona Republic to sponsor a poll on Proposition 205 that was published the first week of September. The poll indicated that 50 percent of voters favor Prop 205 and only 39.9 percent oppose it. Ten percent were undecided at the time.

With the opening of Arapahoe Basin on October 21, the new ski season is officially under way. But while the state is open for skiing, it is not open for public pot consumption. In fact, a search for the words “marijuana” and “cannabis” on Colorado Ski Country USA‘s website comes up empty.

Although recreational cannabis use is legal in Colorado, it is not legal on the slopes — which are all on federal land.  Beyond that, skiing under the influence of drugs or alcohol is also a violation of the Colorado Ski Safety Act. If a skier is found engaging in such activities, the fine can be up to $1,000.