Legal cannabis is now growing faster than any other industry in the U.S. The enterprise deemed the "next great American industry" by the ArcView Group, a California-based investment and research firm, has grown from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2014, the Huffington Post reported.

DENVER, Colorado — Colorado’s legal marijuana business boomed last year, with total sales in the state nearing the $1 billion mark, according to current estimates.

Official figures for marijuana sales in December won’t be available until next month, but Ricardo Baca, a staff writer for The Denver Post’s The Cannabist, reported on Jan. 13 that total marijuana sales, including for both recreational and medicinal purposes, had reached $895 million by November.

The Marijuana Times and partner 420 Tours have collaborated and put together the trip of a lifetime for one contest winner and three of their friends. Dubbed “The Ultimate 420 Experience,” the group plans to award an all-inclusive experience offered nowhere else. To Enter to Win and Learn More go to this link – The Ultimate 420 Experience

“We really wanted to take this to the next level.” says, Nick Phillips of The Marijuana Times.

“TRUST ME, EVERYONE YOU KNOW IS GOING TO BE TRYING TO CLAIM A SPOT IF YOU WIN.”

The itinerary is scheduled as follows:

DENVER -- The Colorado State Patrol will unveil its new marijuana testing program on Tuesday.

It's designed to to find the best way to discover if motorists are driving high. The CSP is testing five devices that will be able to detect pot in someone's system.

One of the devices will check saliva for marijuana and other drugs. The CSP has trained 125 troopers in the new technology.

The state's Attorney General's Office has paid about $250,000 to buy the devices and every CSP field office will have at least one.

State lawmakers have set the legal limit of 5 nanograms of THC in the blood system. The goal is to get an accurate reading from drivers.

While the Colorado-based Fourth Corner Credit Union aimed to serve the cannabis industry, another idea was brewing – an application that could ultimately be the saving grace for similar financial institutions. A software platform, called Hypur, was being developed as a compliance tool to assist cash-intensive businesses. Its original intent was to service payday lenders and check cashing businesses.

“Back in day one, we weren't talking about cannabis at all. So there was no discussion, we didn't build it for cannabis,” Andre G. Herrera, executive vice president of banking and compliance for Hypur, said.

In an utterly predictable ruling, a federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit that sought approval for the establishment of a credit union for marijuana businesses in Colorado.

Much as we favor such a credit union, why would anyone expect any other outcome?

Judges, after all, look at issues through the lens of the law. And while marijuana continues to gain footholds as a legal drug on the state level, at the federal level it remains an illegal substance. What else was the judge to do?

U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson expressed sympathy for pot businesses struggling under the current system, but in his order he said the courts simply could not “look the other way.”

DENVER — When Lauren Gibbs gets married in rural Colorado this July, she'll wear a traditional white dress in front of about a hundred guests. She and her fiance will exchange vows, then celebrate into the night. 

A big, countryside ranch will host. The Colorado River cuts through the property. Surrounded by Rocky Mountain nature, alpine forests collide with blue sky where friends and family will toast the bride and groom. 

"It will be the picturesque, classic Colorado wedding," Gibbs tells me. 

It will also be a fantastic place to get high. 

She is detailing all the ways guests will be able to get stoned at her nuptial.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Canada learn a few things from Colorado when it comes to legalizing pot.

Andrew Freedman, the state’s director of the Office of Marijuana Coordination, tells Maclean’s on the Hill that after the drug became legal, they started public education campaigns on youth prevention and responsible use.

If he had to do it over again, he says he would have started the campaigns well in advance, “just so that people understood that this isn’t a free-for-all culture, that if we’re going to do this, we’re going to set the tone of doing it responsibly and doing it in a way that keeps… Canada safe and healthy.”

Freedman says many issues have popped up which legislators didn’t foresee when they legalized the drug two years ago.

This past Friday, Denver NORML announced a new effort to enact a municipal voter initiative this year in Denver to legalize the social use of marijuana in certain venues within the city. The initiative will be known as “Responsible Use Denver,” and will seek to legalize private marijuana clubs for those 21 and up, as well as protect businesses that permit responsible adult marijuana use.

There are a number of important fixes needed to the initial legalization laws, but none impact more smokers than the current ban on marijuana smoking outside a private home.

A bill proposed in the Colorado state legislature would mandate the creation of a label informing consumers whether or not cannabis products they purchase have been grown using pesticides.

HB16-1079, proposed by Reps. Jonathan Singer (D-Longmont) and KC Becker (D-Boulder), would require the Colorado Department of Agriculture to design a system for companies to have their pesticide-free cannabis products certified as such under a state-sanctioned label.