The legalization of marijuana in the state of Colorado has not only been good for the local economy, but it has inadvertently helped fuel the business of Mexican drug cartels. 

"If you combine the legalization of marijuana and you combine that there are no regulations for the legalization of marijuana outside Colorado, it becomes an attractive criminal enterprises," said Jorge Duque with the Colorado Department of Law.

Duque said cartels are now trading drugs like heroin for marijuana, and the trade has since opened the door to drug and human trafficking.

“We have lots of victims. People are victimized whether they are being forced into prostitution, whether they are being kidnapped or just becoming addicts to illegal drug,” said Duque.

One of the biggest debates in Colorado cannabis lately has revolved around the idea of state government limiting the THC potency of recreational marijuana flower and pot products.

The average potency of Colorado pot products — 17.1 percent for cannabis flower and 62.1 percent for marijuana extracts, according to a state study — is already higher than the newly proposed limits of 15-to-16 percent.

At a convention center in Loveland, Colorado – an agricultural area surrounded by cattle feed yards, wheat fields and the occasional oil rig – thousands of attendees turned out for the third annual NoCo Hemp Expo earlier this month.

The event was about double the size of the previous year’s, with over 130 exhibitors, 75 speakers and about a dozen workshops for those interested in the rapidly-growing industrial hemp industry.

“I love the energy here,” said David Neisingh, co-founder of Reakiro Labs, a European-based firm that specializes in hemp production, investment and development. As one of the expo’s featured speakers, Neisingh showed off a bicycle with a frame made mostly from hemp, and powered by a hemp-oil motor.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday convened a hearing of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control to investigate whether the Justice Department has been derelict in its enforcement duties on marijuana.

In the words of Grassley, "The Department of Justice decided to all but abandon the enforcement of federal law relating to the possession, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana."

A 'prohibitionist party' panel held Tuesday featured little balance.

The two oldest members of the U.S. Senate convened a four-witness hearing Tuesday to discuss concerns about marijuana legalization, but chose not to invite anyone supportive of the policy or with direct experience administering recreational pot laws in Western states.

Drug reform advocates denounced the hearing as a poorly informed waste of time, and senators most supportive of reforming federal marijuana laws did not attend.

Objectivity is important

Know any budding journalists looking for work?

A job notice posted Monday by The Cannabist — a groundbreaking specialist website launched by The Denver Post as Colorado in 2014 legalized the commercial sale of cannabis for recreational use — may have an opportunity.

Cannabis is still illegal on a federal level, so the USDA doesn’t regulate it and there are no laws defining the limitations of the word “organic”.

Since I started writing about cannabis four years ago, I’ve seen a lot of grow operations. And I’ve gotten a variety of answers when I ask the question, “Is this organic?”, but there’s one that I never get: “No.”

Some growers have told me, “Pretty much. Unless we have an issue that you can’t solve using organic pesticides.” Some say, “As much as we possibly can.”

As large-scale growing operations become better regulated, and consumers look increasingly for transparency about how products they're consuming are made, pesticides in cannabis are a cause of widespread concern for users.

City Council will introduce proposal to replace moratorium on new entrants in industry with limits on cultivation, stores

A proposal that would create citywide caps on stores and grow houses to protect marijuana-saturated Denver neighborhoods cleared its first hurdle Monday.

But when the City Council introduces it on the floor April 11 and takes a final vote as early as April 18, the measure isn't guaranteed an easy ride.

Marijuana use and possession is legal by adults in Colorado so it’s only right to rename the Stadium from Sports Authority Field at Mile High to something marijuana related.

via CBS 4 Denver:

“The recent bankruptcy filing by Sports Authority has raised questions about possibly renaming the stadium the Broncos play in, and a marijuana company is one such interested buyer.