Author Kate Simmons

Thornton is finally getting a recreational dispensary. On March 23, the Thornton City Council approved a license for its first retail pot store, but not without some hesitation from councilmembers.

The Marijuana Local Licensing Authority had convened a meeting with Mayor Heidi K. Williams and the council to hear testimony from each of the four dispensaries requesting a license from the city, which had previously had a moratorium on recreational marijuana. That ban was lifted last August, and the applicants all came armed with community-engagement plans to explain what each business would bring to the town.

The evening began with a PowerPoint presentation by Rocky Road Remedies, outlining a $12,000 restorative-justice program the company would like to introduce in schools. After that, Stephanie Hull, director of operations for Rocky Road, was questioned for over an hour by councilmembers.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has awarded a Schedule II classification for a cannabis solution.

Cannabis itself is classified under Schedule I, the same classification as heroin, and marijuana advocates have long hoped that the DEA would lessen the drug’s classification to a Schedule II. While Schedule II substances still have a high potential for abuse, dependence and addiction, there are fewer restrictions on research — an area in which cannabis and marijuana products have encountered many roadblocks.

The pharmaceutical drug company Insys waited two years for the approval of Syndros, an oral remedy containing THC; this week the DEA finally gave the okay. Syndros is approved to treat nausea and vomiting, which many cancer patients suffer during chemotherapy.

Let the research begin.

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. The group will include a hemp producer, a hemp processor, a legal expert, a higher-education representative who’s studied hemp policy, a veterinarian, a livestock producer, and anyone else the commissioner decides could help expand a discussion of hemp.

A month from now, thousands will gather at Civic Center Park for the annual 4/20 cannabis celebration. On Monday, 3/20, the Colorado Department of Transportation and Lyft gathered at the same spot to launch a safe driving program — the 320 Movement.

In the month leading up to April 20, Lyft is offering discounted rides to encourage marijuana users to plan ahead for a safe ride home. It’s branded seventeen cars, wrapping them in green with the message of the campaign, “plan a ride before you’re high.” There are seventeen cars in the fleet because 17 percent of Colorado State Patrol DUI arrests last year involved marijuana, according to CDOT spokesman Sam Cole.

A mutually beneficial relationship between vape companies and artists is changing the industry. And it got its start in Colorado.

Colorado Springs-based 7th Floor Vapes was one of the first herbal vaporizer manufacturers to impress eye-catching works of art on its devices, making vaporization not just a habit, but an experience. Today its monolithic Silver Surfer and Super Surfer desktop vaporizers come in a variety of psychedelic looks, each dreamed up in-house or by outside artists and bands. Some, like Alex Grey’s paintings, are psychotropic; others are hazy, dream-like portraits of nature.

About one in four Americans is buying marijuana instead of beer, according to new research from Cannabiz Consumer Group (C2G) released earlier this month. C2G’s study focused on the behaviors of 40,000 participants, looked at more than 55 million marijuana-sales transactions, and analyzed point-of-sale data.

“Consumers use cannabis to satisfy various social, medical and experiential need states. By understanding these needs, those at risk of losing sales to cannabis can try to offset some of the losses by understanding and speaking to a consumer’s needs,” says Rich Maturo, C2G’s chief innovation officer. “Those at risk of losing sales to legalized cannabis can undertake a variety of actions to offset their losses.”

On March 18, a report on a research study linking marijuana use to strokes and heart failure will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session in Washington, D.C. According to outcomes presented in the data, cannabis users have a slightly higher risk for heart problems — and the research shows that there are even cannabis receptors in heart cells.

Using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), a database of information from more than 1,000 hospitals around the country, researchers compiled records from patients 18 to 55 years of age who were discharged in 2009 and 2010. Hospitals in forty-four states and Washington, D.C., contributed data to the NIS database, according to lead researcher Dr. Aditi Kalla.

In this industry, removing a question mark can mean a great deal — especially when it’s removed from a government website. Earlier this week, the National Institute on Drug Abuse switched the title of its website page from “Is Marijuana Medicine?” to “Marijuana as Medicine.” And that wasn’t the only change.

Nearly every section of the site, which was last revised in July 2015, has minor changes.These revisions may seem inconsequential, but for the cannabis industry and patients who use marijuana for medicinal purposes, they appear significant.

Marijuana companies are accustomed to dealing with strict governmental regulations. They follow them diligently, because one misstep could cost an operating license, and potentially the entire business.

What happened with Grow Depot and the Environmental Protection Agency is a cautionary tale, then. Because after an inspection went awry, the family-owned business had to pay a penalty of $27,500 — simply because ninety bottles of pesticides were unlabeled.

1 2 3 4 5 6 25