DENVER (CBS4) – Hundreds of Colorado veterans waited in a long line in Denver on Saturday for free cannabis products.

The free handouts were set up as a sign of protest to a decision by the state’s health board not to allow post-traumatic-stress disorder as a treatable condition for medical marijuana.

The cannabis giveaway was set up by Grow4Vets founder Roger Martin and Todd Mitchem, CEO of a company called High There! — a sort of social networking tool for pot users.

A Colorado financial institution is suing the federal government to be allowed to serve the state’s growing marijuana industry, according to a report in The New York Times.

The Federal Reserve earlier this month rejected the application from The Fourth Corner Credit Union in Denver, because it intends to provide banking services to state-licensed marijuana businesses.

The federal government still prohibits the use of marijuana, even though many states have taken steps to legalize recreational and medical marijuana. 

In response, the Obama administration has loosened enforcement against many marijuana businesses that operate outside of federal law, but it has yet to lift a ban on banks dealing with these companies.

With the legalization of marijuana in four states and Washington, D.C., the marijuana tourism industry is starting to bud — and go upscale. Think “Napa Valley,” with weed.

By Spencer Peterson, Travel+ Leisure.

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, but only Colorado and Washington have licensed dispensaries that can legally sell recreational cannabis. Since legalization and sale came to those communities, the budding pot industry in these two states has tried to shape a future of vineyard-esque tours of marijuana farms, and fatty-friendly salons reminiscent of Amsterdam’s cafes. (The phrase “Napa Valley of weed” gets tossed around a fair bit.)

AVONDALE —Denver-based Two Rivers Water & Farming Co. typically can reel in $4,000 to $5,000 for every acre of corn, cabbage and pumpkins it plants. But Two Rivers is aiming for far higher cash yields by leasing land to cannabis growers.

Publicly traded Two Rivers, which last year logged $2.4 million in revenue by converting acreage to high-yield fruits and vegetables from feed crops, has spun off a subsidiary, GrowCo Inc., that is building huge greenhouses to lease to licensed recreational marijuana growers at about $1 million an acre.

The Fourth Corner Credit Union, a financial house created for the pot industry, has filed two lawsuits this week challenging their denied applications by the National Credit Union Administration and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

In 23 states, medical marijuana is now legal and in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the District of Columbia recreational marijuana is legal. However, it is still illegal on the federal level.

The Fourth Corner Credit Union is not allowed to accept any marijuana business until they get federally insured.

VAIL — Hawaii — where you can drop seeds on the sidewalk and they’ll grow legalized retail marijuana.

Rep. Della Au Belatti’s (D-Hawaii) bill passed in waning moments of this year’s Hawaii state Legislature allows eight retail marijuana shops in the entire state.

A dozen or so Hawaiian lawmakers were among 350 state legislators in Vail this week for the Council of State Governments West annual convention.

Along with everything else, they managed to squeeze in a field trip to Eagle County’s Green Mile, touring pot shops in Eagle-Vail.

Hawaii is starting small and they’ll see what happens.

“I admire the way Hawaii is baby-stepping into this,” said Bryan Treu, Eagle County attorney.

DENVER – A Colorado-based credit union created to serve the country’s fast-growing legal marijuana industry sued banking regulators on Thursday after being denied access to the nation’s electronic banking system.

The Fourth Corner Credit Union won organizing approval from Colorado regulators in November, and organizers quickly asked the Federal Reserve in Kansas City in grant it a master account number, allowing it to make electronic funds transfers like any other bank or credit union. The Federal Reserve in Kansas City this month rejected that request because the National Credit Union Administration refused to grant deposit insurance to Fourth Corner. The NCUA is an independent federal agency that charters and supervises credit unions.

The CEO of Native Roots says the employee who made the underage sale and the Aspen store's manager have been fired in the wake of the citation

Two recreational marijuana shops in Aspen were cited this week by state regulators for selling pot to an underage customer in a set of rare cases for the industry in Colorado.

The Marijuana Enforcement Division confirmed that it issued two citations after conducting seven underage compliance checks in Aspen.

Since January 2014, the division has conducted about 130 underage compliance checks statewide, resulting in a total of nine violations, MED spokesman Tommy Moore said.

Banking regulators just said no to a financial institution that aims to be the first to serve the expanding marijuana industry in Colorado.

Boulder Colorado based GoFire™ LLC, an emerging player in the vapor concentrate industry, seeks to earn market dominance in the form of loyalty and customer engagement in the medical and recreational vaping markets – and is attracting significant attention for their efforts.