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.”

Recent cannabis (marijuana) use by middle-aged HIV-positive adults is associated with poor mental health quality of life, lack of social engagement and under- and unemployment, investigators from the United States report in the June 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Wana Products on Tuesday announced the launch of WanaCaps XR, a family of extended release cannabis capsules that provide medicinal benefits for up to 12 hours.

Wana Products partnered with Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc., a United States-based Drug Development Company with research and development in Israel, that developed the proprietary technology behind the extended release formulation.

WanaCaps XR will be offered in three different formulations: capsules with a 10:1 CBD to THC ratio (WanaCaps XR High CBD Capsules), a 10:1 THC to CBD ratio (WanaCaps XR High THC Capsules), and a balanced formulation with 1:1 THC:CBD ratio (WanaCaps XR THC/CBD Balanced Capsules).

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.

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.

Opponents of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes have long argued that such laws will encourage more youngsters to partake. But that notion may have no factual grounding, according to a new study that shows cannabis use among teenagers didn’t increase in states that legalized medical marijuana.

The hype over hemp that erupted last year during Colorado’s first sensational flirtations with the marijuana look-alike is now starting to live up to expectations. A handful of growers in 2014 planted and harvested small-scale crops that attracted large-scale attention under hemp’s newly legal status.

This year, hype is being replaced with indicators of hemp’s industrial potential as seen in farm fields, factories, retail outlets and university laboratories. Hemp and its byproducts have a wide range of uses in nutrition, clothing, building materials, cosmetics and health.

The sector still is too tiny to rate even an asterisk in most conventional measures such as crop value and retail sales in Colorado.

Proprietary delivery system makes essential medical marijuana more predictable, eliminates dosing concerns

The former Dish Network employee who was fired for using medical marijuana says he has plenty of free time on his hands - and will use it to crusade for changes in the law.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that the satellite service provider had the right to terminate Brandon Coats for testing positive for marijuana, even though medical pot is legal in the state.

The 35-year-old Coats, who was left 85% paralyzed by a car accident 20 years ago, now says he will turn to lobbying the state legislature to pass a law that will explicitly protect employees who fail drug tests because of medical marijuana use.