Colorado's two U.S. Senators are leading a new bipartisan effort to provide banking for marijuana businesses.

Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner are co-sponsors of the legislation.

“The lack of access to banking services for marijuana businesses is a key issue in Colorado,” Bennet said.

“It raises significant public safety concerns for both employees and customers of these businesses and creates compliance and oversight challenges. This common-sense bill would address those issues by allowing our banking system to serve marijuana businesses that are in compliance with state laws.”

There's no doubt marijuana businesses are a target for criminals. In the past 18 months, L'Eagle Cannabis Gallery in Denver has been burglarized three times.

Marijuana edibles can be tricky. Candies, brownies, teas or other THC-infused foods and beverages can take an hour or more to have the desired effect and a typical “newbie” mistake is to take a second dose because the first one “doesn’t seem to be doing anything.” When both doses kick in, the consumer can unhappily get caught off guard by the results. To meet the customer demand for predictable and fast acting edibles, entrepreneurs have been developing new cannabis-infused products, and the upside to success is significant.

Two years ago, the Flandreau Santee Sioux had high hopes of capitalizing on the collapse of mariuana prohibition by opening a resort where cannabis could be purchased and consumed on their reservation in South Dakota. It all ended in fire and tears as the tribe decided to burn its first cannabis crop rather than risk the wrath of state and federal officials. But yesterday a jury in Flandreau delivered an implicit rebuke to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, the marijuana resort's leading opponent, by acquitting a consultant who worked on the project of state drug charges.

he debate over whether more teens are getting high since marijuana legalization is heating up following the release of a study from Children’s Hospital Colorado.

The study has found marijuana in more teens that are examined in the emergency room of Children’s Hospital in Aurora and its affiliated urgent care centers across the metro area. But the question remains--Are more teens, overall, consuming THC since legalization?

“The trend is there, and we also wanted to show that this is just another way to look at the data,” explained Dr. G. Sam Wang of Children’s Hospital.

The legal marijuana industry brought in upwards of $4 billion in sales in 2016, according to a new report from the Marijuana Business Daily. And small-town America is riding the high.

In the eight US states where recreational marijuana is legal, the marijuana "green rush" has breathed new life into the rural communities that welcome it. Cultivation facilities, dispensaries, and infused products companies create jobs and tax revenue for the cities and states, which then supports public infrastructure and community efforts.

Here are five towns that came back from the brink thanks to legal weed.

Phoenix Life Sciences is pleased to announce that it has signed a strategic alliance agreement with Australia-based medicinal cannabis company Canndeo Ltd (100%-owned subsidiary of The Hydroponics Company ASX:THC) to cooperatively research, develop, manufacture, distribute and sell medicinal cannabis products in Australia and internationally.

Cannabis oil as a sunscreen additive?

'I've been preaching about [how] cannabis cures cancer since 2008," Laurie Gaddis says. And she's been preaching it because it works.

Gaddis moved to Colorado from Arizona after she was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer she says comes from her father's exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. She says she's been a medical marijuana refugee for nearly a decade.

The patchwork of state laws under a federal ambiguity that has gotten worse with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' anti-pot statements has created hundreds of medical marijuana refugees who have to move to a state where they can get the kind of medicine either they or their doctor feel is necessary.

There are far more concerning drugs than weed.

Homelessness is on the rise in Colorado Springs and anecdotally, we often hear that legal marijuana drives the trend. The implication is twofold. First, that poor people move here to access their drug of choice. Second, that getting high leads to people losing jobs and then houses.

New appointment elevates leading producer’s commitment to GMP standards

Wana Brands–Colorado’s No. 1 edibles brand–has expanded its ranks with the addition of progressive culinary professional Todd Garston as Operations Director. Wana Brands co-owner Nancy Whiteman made the announcement. Garston is based in Wana Brands’ headquarters in Boulder.

If marijuana insurance were available anywhere, you would think it would be in Colorado.

Colorado was one of the first states in the country to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Since 2012, it has been a boon to business there -- including businesses like insurance that support the marijuana industry.

But it is insurance after all, and exceptions may apply. That's the question in a wrongful death case involving a man who allegedly went crazy after eating marijuana candy and then killed his wife .

Too Much THC