DENVER — Standing in a retail marijuana dispensary Tuesday, amid cannabis-infused candy and big jars of “Sour Diesel” and “Bazooka Joe,” eight Massachusetts senators had some questions.

“If I were to buy this, what would I do with it? Do I crush it? Roll it? Do I —” asked Senator John F. Keenan, pointing to a jar with a potent-smelling strain, his voice trailing off as if he weren’t sure of the other options.

“Is this medicinal?” asked Senator Michael O. Moore, who then lifted up a jar filled with Purple Alien OG, smiling and posing for a photo on his phone.

Later Keenan, a 51-year-old Quincy Democrat who opposes legalization and says he has never used the drug, had another query for a store employee: “Do you sell” — he paused — “the balm?”

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night approved a ballot measure that will ask voters in April whether marijuana retail sales should be taxed, starting at 5 percent.  

The ballot measure would authorize the Assembly to increase the tax up to 12 percent without going back to voters again, but only once every two years and by a maximum of 2 percent each time. For the first three years, the revenue would fall outside the city tax cap.

After nearly an hour of debate, the Assembly voted 9-2 to approve the measure, with Patrick Flynn and Amy Demboski in opposition.

During the hearing, several industry representatives voiced concern about the structure of the tax and the city’s assumptions about needing a tax to cover enforcement costs.

Last week, two days before Mexican authorities recaptured Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt pointed to another drug lord, this one hiding in plain sight: John Hickenlooper, a.k.a. the governor of Colorado.

Enter the words "mail order marijuana" into Google and you'll find plenty of websites illegally offering marijuana for sale — and offering to ship it straight to you through Canada Post.

Typically, dealers collect payment online, process the order form, and ship the drugs to an address provided by the buyer.

Some websites selling marijuana through the mail operate in plain sight on the internet. (Mary Jane Mail)

Seattle will reduce buffer zones in some places while trying to keep the stores from clustering in some neighborhoods. The plan to allow additional shops, however, may not work as intended.

Legal pot businesses would be allowed in more parts of Seattle under rules approved Monday by the City Council.

Mayor Ed Murray proposed relaxing state-imposed buffers between pot shops and some sensitive areas, such as parks and arcades. As required by state law, the buffers would remain at 1,000 feet between pot businesses and schools and playgrounds.

SALEM — Lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a flurry of tweaks to Oregon's legal marijuana market, including to how pot is grown and sold.

Two bills set for the upcoming legislative session would allow recreational and medical marijuana to be grown and processed in the same facility, and let medical dispensaries sell nontraditional pot products such as edibles and THC oil.

The joint committee on marijuana implementation rolled out its so-called "base bill" — a slew of procedural tweaks that lawmakers hope to tackle in the 35-day short session starting Feb. 1.

Last week, Sean Parker made an honest issue out of cannabis legalization. The former Napster and Facebook whiz kid (and current philanthropic billionaire) plunked down $500,000 towards the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, a legalization measure vying for the Nov. 2016 ballot. The check was a long-awaited confirmation: It had been known as the "Parker Initiative," despite no material support from Parker until last week — and only tepid verbal approval.

SALT LAKE CITY — District Attorney Sim Gill appeared alongside dozens of people who have admitted to using medical marijuana in a show of support for legislation that would legalize it in Utah.

“We need to start thinking about our public policy,” Gill said Wednesday.

A pair of bills are being introduced in the upcoming legislative session that would allow medical cannabis in Utah — but with different impacts. One bill by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, was unveiled Wednesday ahead of a news conference by the Libertas Institute, a Libertarian-leaning think tank that is backing his bill. It would allow for medical cannabis with THC to be distributed through the Utah Department of Agriculture and the Utah Department of Health.

A new state law has cities in Ventura County scrambling to further formalize their bans on the commercial cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of medical marijuana.

They are doing so in response to the California Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act that went into effect Jan. 1. The act requires cities and counties to have land use rules that regulate or prohibit commercial medical marijuana uses.

Cities that do not have such ordinances by March 1 will lose their authority to do so. The state will then be the sole licensing authority.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are already banned throughout Ventura County. The ordinances the cities are adopting clarify those bans.