Dezy Saint-Nolde, better known by her activism name, Queen Phoenix, has emerged as a prominent organizer of protests and demonstrations in recent months. These included the thousands-strong November 10 protest against Donald Trump’s election, the February 18 Defend our Constitution march, a health-care rally on February 25, and a Demand Russia-Trump Ties Investigation march on March 18.

But Phoenix also believes that her activism made her the target of an undercover Denver Police Department investigation in which she was arrested and charged for offenses related to marijuana.

In a January cover story in Westword concerning DPD’s social-media surveillance and how it related to the department’s old “Spy Files” program, Phoenix shared her experience of having her house raided by cops in December on charges that she was distributing marijuana without a license.

Veterans in Colorado’s cannabis industry are the new kids on the block for 4/20.

Since there’s no High Times event on 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.

“We want to take 4/20 back,” says Nick Callaio, marketing and events director for the Green Solution. “High Times didn’t have to jump through all those hoops…we had to jump through all those hoops.”

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.

What can $3.5 million in funding get you? The top slot as the most venture-capitalist-backed company in the cannabis industry.

Last week, Baker, a marketing-automation platform, announced that it had secured a $1.6 million extension to its August 2016 seed round — bringing its total raised capital to $3.5 million. The company’s software connects dispensary owners with customers throughout every touchpoint, from online ordering to in-store check-in and interactive shopping menus. Last year, Baker helped more than 250 dispensaries collect a total of $3.1 million in revenue.

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.

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.

Rocky Pedersen, who has been charged with 35 criminal counts, including attempted first-degree murder, for a series of robberies at marijuana businesses over the past five months, once owned a medical marijuana dispensary that was itself the target of a high-profile robbery back in 2013.

In May 2011, Westword reported about Longmont’s move toward a dispensary ban. Quoted in the post is “Rocky Pederson, co-owner of New Age Wellness.” Pedersen said he’d held a sales-tax license in the community since September 2009 and was worried about a possible ban’s impact on MMJ patients.