February 27, 2015

Dispensaries and retail cannabis stores in Colorado sold nearly 150,000 pounds of marijuana flower last year as overall demand for MJ soared in the nation’s first recreational market, according to a new report by the state’s Department of Revenue.

The report shows that Colorado’s marijuana sector grew rapidly across the board in 2014, from the number of cannabis business licenses and industry employees to the volume of edibles sales.

This is a mock-up of new marijuana-oil cards that Iowa has started issuing to people with severe epilepsy. The cards allow possession of the oil, but critics say they don’t offer a legal way to obtain the medication.(Photo: Iowa Department of Public Health)

Just nine patients have applied for permission to possess marijuana extract in the month since the Iowa Department of Public Health started accepting applications, administrators reported this week.

The state has started issuing special cards allowing people with severe epilepsy to possess a type of marijuana oil that has little of the chemical that makes recreational users high. Proponents say the oil can help control seizures.

Pot patent(Photo: Bloomberg)

DENVER - It may very well be largest collection of data about marijuana use ever released in human history.

Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division unveiled an official report documenting a trove of information about marijuana and edible pot sales, the size of the industry, and testing results.

The Raw Tonnage

74 tons of marijuana flower were sold in the state, of which only 19 tons were sold as "recreational," telling us medical patients used more than twice as much marijuana flower (buds) as did recreational customers.

President Barack Obama on Thursday said he wants to treat marijuana like tobacco, which is legal. But, in a bit of a contradiction, he also suggested he opposes marijuana legalization.

In an interview with Kansas City news station KMBC, Obama said states could change their marijuana laws to discourage pot use in the same way tobacco use is discouraged:

One of the reasons we encourage cannabis patients to experiment with various strains for their ailment is because we have seen different strains work for different people. Perhaps you have a potent strain you like to medicate with that your friend feels no effect from at all. What makes one person paranoid could relax another simply because each person has different brain chemistry and body fat distribution. Taking this further, we might ask the question: “In general, is the experience of medicating with cannabis different for men than for women?” After all, men and women have different hormone profiles and different fat distribution patterns as well, right?

Two Pennsylvania state senators have offered a bill that would legalize the possession and recreational use of of marijuana in the Keystone State.

Photo: Terray Sylvester / The Chronicle

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Courtnie Ross (22) orders a drink at a Great Gatsby-themed party hosted by Flow Kana in the Berkeley hills on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015. Flow Kana is a San Francisco-based startup that hopes to give consumers a "farm-to-table" experience for "connoisseur grade" cannabis.

Photo: Terray Sylvester / The Chronicle

Courtnie Ross (22) orders a drink at a Great Gatsby-themed party...

Senator Rand Paul (left), Republican of Kentucky, criticized former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s stance on medical marijuana, after revelations of Bush’s former recreational marijuana use came to light.

Globe Staff  February 27, 2015

Rand Paul defended his calling Jeb Bush a hypocrite during an interview with Katie Couric on Wednesday, citing Bush’s confession that he smoked marijuana while at Phillips Academy in Andover.

“I drank alcohol and I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover,” Bush told the Globe in an interview earlier this year. “It was pretty common.”

A state Senate committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would require medical marijuana caregivers to register and allows state agencies to share enough information to ensure pot grown for medicine isn't sold illegally.

While pot sold for recreational use has been subject to a battery of tests and regulations since it became legal last year, medical marijuana has gone relatively unregulated, requiring only that caregivers be at least 18 years old and have "significant responsibility" for the care of a licensed medical marijuana user.

Oak Creek — Before moving to Colorado, Nick Neidlein didn't smoke marijuana, knew next to nothing about the retail business and had never even seen many plants.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana, Neidlein's life has changed dramatically.

Reefer Review: A year of marijuana

Click here to read the Reefer Review, a five-part series on the first year of legal marijuana.

He moved to Breckenridge about four years ago, and through some former roommates, he met Brian Rogers.