Rich and Kim Muszynski know when their 5-year-old daughter, Abby, is about to have a grand mal seizure because her pupils enlarge, and she'll seem to fixate at something in the distance that only she can see.

Then it starts. Abby's extremities shake. She gasps for air. 

By the time she turned 3, Abby had tried about eight different anti-seizure medications. None of them worked very well. Panicked to see their daughter getting worse and worse, the Muszynskis drove three hours to Orlando to see Dr. Ngoc Minh Le, a board certified pediatric neurologist and epileptologist.

More than 18,000 people in Colorado now have full-time jobs because of the legalized marijuana industry, which has generated a $2.39 billion impact on the Rocky Mountain State’s economy.

Those are two of the findings in a new report that attempts to quantify the impact of the marijuana industry in Colorado, one of the first states to legalize cannabis for both medical and recreational use.

The “Economic Impact of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado” report, created by the Marijuana Policy Group in Denver, uses a new model for measuring the economic importance of marijuana called the “marijuana impact model.”

For those who call Colorado, Oregon and Washington home, growing cannabis outdoors has become the norm. And in most cases, these growers couldn’t be happier with the quality of the bud that bloomed from soil and sunshine.

After marijuana was made legal in Colorado and Washington in 2012, many green thumb enthusiasts jumped on the chance to grow their plants outdoors. Soon people in Oregon were doing the same, and outdoor growing quickly became part of the norm. Marijuana though, as it would soon turn out, wasn’t the only thing wasn’t the only kind of cannabis plant that would be legal to grow.

On Thursday, CanPay announced the first debit payment solution for the expanding legal marijuana industry has become available to retailers and consumers in the states of Washington, Oregon and Colorado. The service has already launched in 15 retail stores across Washington and Colorado, solving the cash-only problem that troubles the legal cannabis industry.

“Maybe it’ll make your slightly racist uncle a little bit more tolerable.”

First you'll hit the grocery store for a turkey, or sweet potatoes, or pie. Then maybe the liquor store for a bottle of wine to bring to dinner. And then, depending on where you live, perhaps the dispensary, for an extra Thanksgiving pick-me-up—some marijuana.

Opponents of a state ruling that would prevent bars and many restaurants in Denver from offering on-site marijuana consumption said the ruling would overturn a law approved by voters and force people to sneak around while they use pot and consume alcohol.

The new rule announced Friday bars liquor-license holders from apolplying for a permit to allow the consumption of pot. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said using alcohol and marijuana together increases impairment.

After millions of out-of-state dollars and corporate interests helped legalize recreational marijuana in three states this past Tuesday, some pundits have said the debate over legalization is finished.

Actually, the debate is just beginning.

A new Congress and Administration are in Washington, and it’s unlikely they’ll be friendly to pot industry interests. You certainly won’t see Rudy Giuliani on the cover of High Times any time soon, and opponents to legalization are more emboldened than ever: Recreational marijuana lost big in purple Arizona last Tuesday, and almost two-thirds of localities in liberal Oregon with this issue on the ballot voted “no” to pot shops in their neighborhoods. 

Rachel O'Bryan was campaign manager for Protect Denver's Atmosphere, which opposed Initiative 300, the local ballot measure that will allow specially licensed businesses in that city to create consumption areas for customers who bring their own cannabis. In a recent interview with Westword, O'Bryan raised several objections to the initiative, which was supported by about 54 percent of voters in last week's election.

Will Massachusetts hospitals be swamped by patients who’ve had a bad experience with pot? What about teens? Will they be more likely to use marijuana now that Massachusetts voters have approved recreational use?

With recreational marijuana set to become legal next month, concerns about the drugs’ effect on a wide swath of life have gained urgency, prompting Boston health officials Wednesday to seek guidance from their counterparts in Colorado, among the first states to legalize the drug.

Voters have approved the Prop 300 law.

A glass of wine with dinner? Or maybe some marijuana?

Denver voters have approved a first-in-the-nation law allowing willing bars and restaurants to give patrons the option to use marijuana alongside a cocktail or meal. The catch: Smoking pot won’t be allowed inside, and the locations would have to first get the approval of neighbors.

Denver voters approved Proposition 300 on the same day that the nation’s largest state of California and two others legalized pot for all adults and five more states approved pot for sick people—signs of society’s increasing tolerance for the drug.