Weed history is being made in Seattle: the first vending machines to dispense marijuana flower buds debuted Tuesday.

The machines, called ZaZZZ, are being placed in medical pot dispensaries, which helps to verify customer's age and identity since medical marijuana cards are required to enter the centers, said Greg Patrick, a spokesman for the maker of ZaZZZ, American Green.

Though vending machines appeared for the first time in Colorado last year, those sold only edibles, or cannabis-infused foods, and not the plant's flower buds that are so often associated with smoking pot.

Operated by three siblings, Medicine Man has become the largest cannabis dispensary in Denver and an example of how to run a business in the burgeoning pot sector.

In the beginning, Pete Williams grew medical marijuana in his basement. He grew strains with names like White Widow and Sour Diesel, and it was good. Eventually, Pete's older brother Andy joined him and the business soon became too big for the basement. Five years later, Medicine Man is one of the largest and most successful cannabis dispensaries in the state of Colorado. With two retail locations, one in Denver and the other in Aurora, the company produced 7,000 pounds of pot and made $8 million in revenue in 2014. 

AURORA, COLORADO – During this spring, Dr. Kelly Knupp, a pediatric epilepsy specialist, and her colleagues will be conducting a three-year, $500,000 observational study at Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado.

• On January 1, laws making legal the use of recreational marijuana went into effect in Colorado and the state of Washington. Fifty-six percent of Americans now favor legalization and regulation of marijuana.

  In the meantime, there are 20 states plus Washington DC where medical marijuana is legal, and four states with pending legislation.

  “Medical marijuana” is something of a misnomer. A physician does not write a prescription for a specific compound at a specific dosage that a patient fills at a pharmacy. Indeed, the physician’s only involvement may be in issuing the requisite medical marijuana card. 

  The card allows users to shop at marijuana dispensaries. It also amounts to a “get out of jail free” card

BOULDER, Colo. — Recreational marijuana is both illegal and controversial in most of the country, and its relationship to food does not rise much above a joke about brownies or a stoner chef’s late-night pork belly poutine.

But cooking with cannabis is emerging as a legitimate and very lucrative culinary pursuit.

In Colorado, which has issued more than 160 edible marijuana licenses, skilled line cooks are leaving respected restaurants to take more lucrative jobs infusing cannabis into food and drinks. In Washington, one of four states that allow recreational marijuana sales, a large cannabis bakery dedicated to affluent customers with good palates will soon open in Seattle.

Look all you want, and you'll find nary a marijuana tourism brochure at kiosks operated by Colorado's official travel bureaus.

Yet that institutional prohibition hasn't stopped thousands of cannabis tourists from visiting Colorado to experience the phenomenon of legal marijuana.

"This is just awesome," said Mike Goldstein of Staten Island, N.Y., who visited Denver with three friends in early December. "I think it should be legal everywhere. You raise taxes, and you take it out of the hands of organized crime."

Move over, Amsterdam and Vancouver (sometimes known as “Vansterdam” for its notoriously loose, yet still illegal, pot culture): There’s a new plume of cannabis tourism locales on the rise in the U.S.

Amsterdam has long topped lists of destinations for travelers seeking legal recreational marijuana, but new laws across the U.S. are producing a fresh crop of hot pot spots.

Environmental wariness and outdoor cultivation will be key for future legal marijuana production in Colorado.

When recreational marijuana use becomes legal in Colorado on January 1, medical retailers expect demand to increase by 400 per cent. Increasing supply to meet that demand will carry with it dramatic economic and environmental costs.

Mary's Medicinals, a producer and distributor of transdermal cannabis patches, gels and compounds, on Tuesday announced a licensing agreement with Green Natural Solutions (GNS) of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for exclusive access to its proprietary 40:1 CBD:THC marijuana strain, known as Mary's Healing Heart. Mary's Healing Heart has a significantly higher cannabidiol (CBD) level and lower THC level than the most well known high-CBD strains available today, according to the company. A recent media blitz has highlighted the extraordinary benefits of CBD for epilepsy and many other ailments. Families have flocked to Colorado with hopes of obtaining CBD treatments, but many have encountered roadblocks, left on waiting lists or procuring low quality hemp materials imported from China.

DENVER – The gold rush of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington is creating a confusing market of goods and services, from illegal Craigslist pot deliveries to a marijuana vending machine and a food truck selling pot-infused sandwiches.

While recreational marijuana sales are legal in both states, the marketplaces are surrounded by a web of laws and regulations intended to keep buyers paying taxes and transactions aboveboard. But with tens of millions of dollars in profits up for grabs, entrepreneurs are flooding the market with products and services operating in a gray area. Some ventures are completely illegal but the vendors escape prosecution by trying to stay low key. Others grab headlines that are misleading at best.