Marijuana dispensaries in Colorado sold $7.3 million worth of legal pot on April 20, shattering previous records and giving the Centennial State its best day and month ever for retail weed sales.

The millions of dollars worth of marijuana sold by state-sanctioned shops on April 20 — or 4/20, in pot-smoker parlance — amounted to a 53 percent increase over sales figures from that same date in 2015, MarketWatch reported Tuesday.

A state senator who wants New Jersey to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for recreational use returned this week feeling good after a fact-finding visit to Colorado.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, didn’t try the product. But he’s more convinced than before that New Jersey should legalize pot after experiencing how legalization has positively impacted Colorado’s economy, tax revenues and crime rates.

“Change is always difficult. Do I see it as an uphill fight? Yeah, it’s an uphill fight,” Scutari said. “But it’s changing. It’s not as uphill as when I stood here two years ago and told you that I wanted to legalize marijuana. We’re in a lot better position now. And I’ll tell you what: I feel a lot more comfortable doing it now that I’ve seen a really good industry.”

Marijuana Central has seen incredible growth in the past six months and now receives over 300,000 unique visitors per month. Company founder Korban Stone says, “We have not done any marketing yet, but we continue to see the number of visitors rise.” He plans to begin advertising and marketing the site and last month the website began to monetize by accepting listings from marijuana related companies. “We’ll be investing our revenues into driving more traffic to the site. I don’t see this growth trend ending any time soon as this is just the beginning of this industry and we’re positioned to grow with it.”

Colorado State University-Pueblo is closer to being able to conduct research on marijuana.

On Monday, Pueblo County officials agreed to provide up to $270,000 in funding to research the impact of marijuana on the community and the efficacy of treating various issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, with medical marijuana.

Also, a new law calls for $900,000 from Colorado’s Marijuana Tax Cash Fund to be given to CSU-Pueblo for cannabis research. Governor John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 191 on Monday, June 6.

"This is a momentous day," the statement quoted Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace as saying. “I am incredibly excited to have real quantifiable data about how cannabis is affecting our community."

Colorado's legal cannabis sales continue to smash records, mainly because of the increased interest in concentrates and edibles. Dispensary sales in April surged by 58 percent over the same period previous year, according to Boulder-based BDS Analytics.

What's more, the monthly sales of $117-million beat last December's record $101-million in sales.

The 2016 NORML Aspen Legal Seminar

I just returned a few days ago from a lovely long weekend in beautiful Aspen, CO, a charming old silver-mining town in the Rocky Mountains with breath-taking views, that serves as a popular playground for skiers in the winter and biking and hiking enthusiasts in the other seasons. And it is the location of an annual NORML legal seminar held each year in early June.

The Seminar Itself

First, for those attorneys who attend this event, it is a truly unique opportunity to hear from some of the most brilliant and creative criminal defense and marijuana business attorneys in the country.

A Florida-based firm is opening three new offices in cities where cannabis is an emerging industry, and it has plans to open more.

Another sign of how the legal cannabis industry is growing and maturing: the arrival of established law firms, looking to represent those involved in what was once an outlaw enterprise.

A marijuana grow operation in Denver could go up in smoke because neighbors are sick of the smell.

The grower Starbuds wants to renew its cultivation license, but residents are urging city officials to deny the application — complaining that the operation is negatively affecting the neighborhood with its excessive odors, according to the Denver Post.

Starbuds is located in a mixed-use zoning area, but the hearing officer Suzanne A. Fasing says that the operation does not comply with the neighborhood’s restrictions. Fasing has suggested the city revoke its license.

But Starbuds argues there is no proof their product reeks.

A Denver marijuana cultivation business, The Tea Pot LLC, is voluntarily recalling medical marijuana and medical marijuana products due to the presence of unsafe pesticide residues.

Samples of marijuana infused products contained residual levels of Myclobutanil and Spiromesifin, pesticides that the Colorado Department of Agriculture has determined cannot be used legally on marijuana in Colorado.

All Tea Pot LLC marijuana and marijuana products (such as concentrates) are subject to the recall and were distributed throughout Colorado bearing the OPC # of 403-00081 on each label.

Paths toward medical marijuana: Legislative action versus voter initiative

Of 25 states that have legalized medical marijuana in the United States, 14 of them have done so by legislative action and 11 have done so by voter-led ballot initiative.

In a new analysis of state medical cannabis program data, New Frontier, a leading cannabis industry data and analysis company, finds states that legalized through the legislative process have more restrictive medical cannabis programs than states that legalized through voter-led ballot initiatives.