Celebrities bring big money and big names to a capped marijuana industry

COLORADO —  It’s been nearly two years since recreational pot was legalized in Colorado and the thriving pot industry has hit some hurdles in the form of potential dangers to consumers.

Pesticides that are illegal to use on marijuana plants in Colorado are being found in some recreational and medical pot products being marketed and sold to the public — leading to product recalls, plant quarantines and even a class-action lawsuit involving people who say they would not have inhaled the product had they known illegal pesticides were used on them.

Charlotte Figi from Face of Cannabis, a website devoted to children who have found relief from serious medical problems with CBD-rich cannabis

It’s hard to imagine giving a five-year-old cannabis.

But it’s also hard not to, when you see the faces and hear the stories of children who are fighting to have access to cannabinoids–called CBD, or cannabidiol’–that have helped them overcome severe handicaps.

City officials will seek a temporary moratorium expansion to give City Council more time to discuss regulations, spokesman says

Denver city officials have pulled back from seeking a two-year moratorium on any new players in the city's legal marijuana market in response to City Council concerns, a city spokesman says.

On Tuesday morning, Mayor Michael Hancock's marijuana policy office instead will ask a council committee to approve an expanded 120-day moratorium, allowing time for more discussion and consideration of industry concerns. The current two-year moratorium — allowing only existing medical marijuana businesses to open recreational dispensaries, grow houses or edible manufacturers — expires Jan. 1.

Pesticides that are illegal to use on marijuana plants in Colorado are being found in some recreational and medical pot products being marketed and sold to the public -- leading to product recalls, plant quarantines and even a class-action lawsuit involving people who say they would not have inhaled the product had they known illegal pesticides were used on them.

Pesticide testing is not mandatory for pot businesses in Colorado, nor are they subject to random pesticide testing, as are other crops, according to Mitch Yergert of the state's agriculture department. Pot businesses generally are left to self-regulate pesticides use, though officials say they are working to come up with a plan for better oversight.

It’s a familiar conundrum. You’re visiting Denver. You purchase a preroll and a lighter at a legal cannabis shop, and...now what? Your hotel doesn’t allow smoking. It’s illegal to fire up in public. You’re caught in the all-too-common Denver dilemma.

DALLAS, Nov. 24, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rocky Mountain High Brands, Inc. (OTCPK:RMHB) announced today that the Company has signed a LOI (Letter of Intent) to work with a Native Comanche Indian Family of Oklahoma to produce ‘Original Rocky Mountain Spring Water' from the original Ancestral Rockies Springs located in the now present Wichita Mountains.
 

Mike Paterson is one of Canada's hardest working and most beloved comedians. For more than 20 years, he's been a fixture on the national comedy circuit and starred alongside the likes of Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale in Hollywood feature films. He's also a writer, theater actor, musician, wrestler and star of a children's television show. He's been maintaining this gruelling schedule, even though he's been suffering with debilitating sciatica back pain. It had become unbearable for him, and with just four months until his wedding, Paterson needed a quick fix to his back pain and weight problem that had been made worse by a life of too much beer and pizza.

The Denver City Council could put a hold on new marijuana dispensaries this week as it considers a two-year moratorium on medical marijuana businesses and a two-year extension on dispensary license transitions.

If both are approved when the council's Business Development Committee meets on Tuesday, only medical marijuana dispensaries open since October 2013 and in good standing with the city could apply for a license to sell retail marijuana for the next two years, while new medical marijuana dispensaries would be prohibited for the same amount of time — essentially freezing out any new dispensaries, medical or recreational. 

Sales of hemp products will reach $500 million nationwide in 2015, according to a preliminary analysis by the Boulder-based Hemp Business Journal.

That's up 25 percent over 2014, when Americans bought about $400 million worth of such hemp-based products as clothing, cosmetics and building materials, the majority of which were imported into the U.S.

That's likely to change with the legalization of hemp farming, which became legal — again, after a 77-year prohibition — in 2014. Three states accounted for the majority of agricultural hemp in 2015: Colorado (leading the way with 2,000 acres in production) Tennesee (1,000 acres) and Kentucky (922 acres).