Denver's Dixie Elixirs, which makes marijuana-based carbonated drinks and candies, is prettying itself up so it can be acquired by Big Alcohol.

America's legal cannabis industry has been clawing its way back to where it was before it became illegal in 1937--a legitimate, hugely profitable provider of clothes, paper, and medicine, and a safe respite from everyday stress. The process of legalization and social acceptance has been slow, starting in 1996 in California. Today, medical marijuana is legal in 23 states (as well as Washington, D.C.) and recreational pot is legal in four.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 29, 2015) - mCig, Inc. (OTCQB: MCIG), a leading provider of technology, products, and services for consumers, manufacturers, dispensaries, and growers within the global medical and recreational marijuana industry, announced today that the Company has signed a letter of intent agreement ("LOI") to acquire Security Grade Protective Services, Inc., a full-service security firm specializing in the cannabis industry.

In a city with dispensaries as common as coffee shops, Denver is undoubtedly the epicenter of the legal marijuana movement. And if you're in the business of bud, it's a good place to be: Colorado accounted for a third of the country's 2.7 billion dollar marijuana market last year.

But with being America's fastest growing industry, comes growing pains. Marijuana is still illegal on the federal level, which has led to conflicting state laws, restrictive regulations, and endless problems for cash-only marijuana business owners and operators.

VICE News meets the investors cashing in on the green rush and finds out how fractured marijuana laws are causing the American market to miss out.

If you’re wondering what kind of company announces its weed-friendly, all-inclusive ranch resort to the general public — Jimmy Fallon included — before securing an actual ranch property, allow us to introduce you to the Mary Jane Group.

Denver is America's cannabis capital. Reefers, pipes, bongs — even candy — whichever way you roll, it's all legal

The mile-high city is what they call Denver on the tourist brochures and the posters — it sits in the lap of the Rocky Mountains. So it was with the serendipity of nominative determination that Colorado became the first state to legalise recreational use of marijuana in America — thus  transferring the slogan onto a million hilarious hippie T-shirts.

GOP presidential candidates dislike legal marijuana — but some support Colorado's right to have the law (Slideshow) - Denver Business Journal

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at an impromptu media conference on June 27,… more

Republican presidential candidates speaking in Denver this weekend uniformly criticized the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana — but also said for the most part that they would not attempt to overturn what they considered to be an issue of states’ rights.

Jimmy weighs the good and bad of Denver resort CannaCamp: A Bud+Breakfast™ Mountain Retreat. From the CannaCamp website:

CannaCamp is a 170-acre slice of heaven. We encourage you to enjoy first-hand
the awe-inspiring vistas, relaxation, and unpretentious hospitality of our secluded mountain resort. Our property offers guests an unprecedented opportunity to experience the outdoors and cannabis in a safe, comfortable, and social environment.

CannaCamp is more than a place, it is a feeling that you won’t soon forget,
and a rare experience you can’t afford to miss.

DENVER — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not agree with Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana, but he said Saturday he will defend the state’s right to make a hash of things.

Speaking at the Western Conservative Summit, Mr. Perry made a vigorous defense for the states’ role as “laboratories of democracy,” in the words of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, even if it means sticking up for Colorado’s retail pot market.

“Let this country compete again. I am so optimistic about the future of America if we would free up these states from this one-size-fits-all,” Mr. Perry said. “You’ll see innovation. And from time to time, a state’s going to foul it up. They just are.”

You can buy a Budweiser in Vail. You can smoke a bud, as in the flowering portion of a cannabis plant, in the privacy of your own home. But buy a bud, shatter, wax or chocolate chip cookies infused with THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis?

Not yet. And perhaps not ever. Unlike some other ski towns in Colorado, which have chosen to treat marijuana similar to alcohol in important ways, Vail has been deeply ambivalent about allowing sales. Almost everybody would agree that attitudes toward cannabis use have rapidly changed, and many people would agree that it’s for the better that the economy of cannabis has been brought above ground.