In the winter of 1999, Dr. Allan Frankel, a renowned internist in Los Angeles, suffered a viral infection of the heart. Doctors told him he had six months to live. He'd rarely tried marijuana, but several of his cancer and AIDS patients urged him to use it for his heart. A year later, his heart was normal. Frankel, now 66, says he can't be certain that cannabis healed him – but it certainly helped. "I'd been depressed and cannabis stopped the depression," he says. "It gave me something to look forward to. My brain was turned on."

While Congress has largely refused to roll back, or even debate, the federal prohibition on pot, local voters across the U.S. have cast ballots to end the war on marijuana. But the nation's patchwork of pot laws can be confusing – even in the states where it's allowed – so here's a blueprint of what you can and can't do in the eight states (plus D.C.) where weed's been legalized for recreational use.

Can a 58-year-old former insurance executive build the first national marijuana brand? With these gummies, she just might.

Nancy Whiteman still mourns those candied, spice-dusted almonds. "They were so good. They were so stinking good," she sighs longingly. And so stinking hard to make--legally.

Because Whiteman, the unlikely co-founder and co-owner of the most successful specialized candy business in Colorado, didn't stop with the curry powder and sugar and salt. She also dredged those almonds through syrup infused with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The doors — or rather, windows — will soon open on the Tumbleweed Express Drive-Thru, the nation's first legal drive-thru marijuana dispensary.

Located in a converted car wash space in Parachute, Colo., the dispensary will sell weed from 4 p.m. to midnight on the weekends, giving buyers late-night access. Naturally, the shop is planning to open on April 20, better known as 4/20.

In Colorado, we pride ourselves on being physically fit and active.

There is no other state in the union where hiking 14,000-foot mountains is an unexceptional hobby, or where most of the population understands the phrase “baggin’ ’teeners.” On top of being a state filled with trim bodies, we’re also a state full of trim marijuana. But how does recreational weed — a sub- stance typically associated with lazy, pot-bellied stoners eating potato chips on bean bag couches — fit into our self-image of a state filled with sexy hiker bodies with abs as solid as the rocks we climb?

Pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids may be effective against eczema, psoriasis, atopic and contact dermatitis.

Anti-inflammatory properties in a cannabis compound could help treat itching and a wide-range of other skin diseases, say researchers.

The new study, published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, summarises the current literature on the subject and concludes that pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids may be effective against eczema, psoriasis, atopic and contact dermatitis.

“Perhaps the most promising role for cannabinoids is in the treatment of itch,” said the study’s senior author Robert Dellavalle, Associate Professor of Dermatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the US.

While it’s not yet on calendars, April 20 has become the unofficial holiday of marijuana, particularly in the growing number of states where pot has been decriminalized for recreational use. “It has become hugely celebrated,” says Brett Konen, an editor with Seattle-based Leafly.com, which calls itself the world’s largest cannabis information source. The Trump administration has indicated it may crack down on marijuana, but the industry continues to grow for now. Konen shares cannabis culture hotspots with Larry Bleiberg for USA TODAY.

Colorado lawmakers have backed off plans to regulate marijuana clubs, saying the state would invite a federal crackdown by approving Amsterdam-style cannabis clubs.

The state House voted Thursday to amend a bill that would have set rules for how the private clubs could work.

It was a dramatic reversal. Bring-your-own-cannabis clubs had bipartisan support in the Legislature, and the measure had already cleared the GOP Senate.

But lawmakers bowed to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who repeatedly warned lawmakers that he would veto a club measure if it allowed indoor smoking. The governor also warned that clubs, and a separate proposal to allow cannabis delivery, might invite intervention from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Colorado Senate passed a bill Wednesday to allow pot growers and retailers to reclassify recreational pot as medical marijuana in the event of a federal crackdown.

The bill is seen as the boldest bid yet by a U.S. marijuana state to avoid possible federal intervention in its pot market. But critics say nothing guarantees that reclassifying pot as medicine would stop federal action.

Marijuana is illegal under federal law, and the Trump administration has given mixed signals on its policy toward U.S. marijuana states.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been skeptical of pot's medical value. President Donald Trump has suggested the handling of marijuana should be up to the states.