Our coverage of 4/20 weekend raids at two Denver marijuana clubs highlights a continuing area of concern for cannabis activists: While locals and visitors can legally consume pot recreationally in Denver, they aren't allowed to do so in social settings outside private homes.

Now, Mason Tvert and attorney Brian Vicente, the two most prominent proponents of Amendment 64, the 2012 measure that made limited legal recreational marijuana sales legal in Colorado, are prepping a new Denver ordinance expected to be called "The Limited Social Marijuana Consumption Initiative."

SALEM-Medical marijuana dispensary owners pleaded Thursday with legislators to allow them to sell to recreational pot users once the drug becomes legal on July 1.

"We don't know a single dispensary doing well in this over-saturated market," said Meghan Walstatter, who along with her husband Matt owns a dispensary in Northeast Portland.

She called early sales of recreational marijuana a "much-needed lifeline" for the dispensaries.

The Oregon Health Authority has approved licenses for 310 dispensaries and another 93 are pending, according to a June 12 tally. 

In Live Free or Die, a 2010 memoir recounting how cannabis oil saved her life, Shona Banda emphasizes the importance of “self-taught knowledge,” acquired by constantly asking questions and “looking at all of the angles of any information given.” Her son may have learned that lesson too well. Had he been less inquisitive, less prone to question authority, he might still be living with his mother, and she might not be facing criminal charges that could send her to prison for decades.

Dish Network has a strict zero-tolerance drug policy. Brandon Coats is a quadriplegic who uses legal medical marijuana. The company fired the Colorado man in 2010 when it found he was using medical marijuana in his off hours.

Sounded callous, but was it legal?

Short answer: Yes, in Colorado. Maybe in Nevada.

“Mr. Coats could not have had a more sympathetic set of facts,” said Steve Suflas, an attorney with the national law firm of Ballard Spahr, who is based in Colorado. “This was a guy with a very, very sad state of affairs and an employer with a strict anti-drug policy.”

Prime Minister John Key is unconvinced by a doctor's claim that the pure form of ecstasy is safer than alcohol and should be legalised.

Emergency medical specialist and clinical toxicologist Paul Quigley told Fairfax Media there was mounting evidence that MDMA was one of the safest intoxicants around, especially when compared with alcohol. Liquor-related injuries and illnesses made up about two-thirds of late-night and weekend admissions at Wellington Hospital's accident and emergency department, he said.

It’s time to ditch that “Gateway to the Rockies” label. Denver is a bona fide destination, besting Colorado’s ski resorts as a top draw for vacationers.

A record 15.4 million overnight vacationers and business travelers visited Denver in 2014, spending a record $4.6 billion — two benchmarks among several in which the city logged gains at double or triple the national average.

Since Denver voters in 2005 approved an increase in the city’s lodging tax to bolster tourism promotion, the number of leisure travelers lured to Denver through marketing has grown 65 percent.

You can bring marijuana into this year's U.S. Open

The Delaware Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill 4-2 on Wednesday that would remove criminal penalties and potential jail time for simple adult marijuana possession and replace them with a civil fine similar to a traffic ticket. The measure will now be considered by the full Senate.

HB 39, introduced by Rep. Helene Keeley (D-Wilmington South) in the House and sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chair Margaret Rose Henry (D-Wilimington East) in the Senate, would make possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by an adult a civil violation punishable by a $100 fine with no possibility of jail. Under current Delaware law, possession of up to one ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $575 fine and up to three months in jail.

Absent the discovery of some previously undisclosed health hazard, marijuana is virtually certain to become more widely available.

Would you smoke marijuana if it were legal?

Backers of two rival ballot initiatives to decriminalize the cultivation, purchase and use of marijuana are betting that a significant percentage of Michigan adults — at least 12% — would, generating upwards of $200 million a year in tax revenue once the state has established the ground rules for a legal market.

But what if you knew your employer could fire you for having chemical traces of marijuana in your bloodstream — even if you used it only on your own time, and in your own home?

DENVER — Two-and-a-half years after Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana, activists are hoping to convince Denver voters to amend city laws to allow a private business to decide if consuming marijuana on their property should be allowed.

The group behind the 2012 passing of Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana for people 21 and older, is hoping to collect enough signatures to force a ballot measure for the November 2015 election in Denver.

The measure, which is still being written, would essentially allow businesses like bars and restaurants to section-off an area where marijuana consumption would be permitted.