Meanwhile legalized marijuana usage in Colorado has produced unexpected consequences.

“I think the world is looking at Colorado and I think this is this great period with great social and economic change around controlled substances”.

Marijuana candy. Trick or treat? a billboard on a major Denver thoroughfare warned.

“It’s not all about making money and about profiting”, said Ean Seeb, co-owner of Denver Relief, a dispensary whose monetary and volunteering donations include Ekar Farm and Garden, which grows vegetables for food banks. In 2012, Colorado passed a law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

The cannabis industry is taking a hit.  The nation’s first cannabis product liability lawsuit was filed in Colorado and challenges the cannabis industry’s production process.

“Pot Baron” Tripp Keber, the CEO of Dixie Brands who has been called the “Willie Wonka of Weed” by some, was the cover story on the September edition of mg Magazine, an impressive new cannabis-industry focused endeavor by CANN Media. Thomas Hymes does a masterful job of capturing Keber’s persona and describing the challenges and opportunities for the maker of premium infused marijuana products. Dixie Brands has expanded from its home state of Colorado to California recently, but the company is preparing for a broader expansion:

Developers are poised to break ground on a project that could make a tiny southern Colorado town one of the nation's largest producers of legal marijuana.

The town of Walsenburg this month formally closed a $1.33 million deal with a developer to build a 332-acre campus for cannabis growing, processing and distribution, with the marijuana to be trucked 160 miles north to consumers in metro Denver. Walsenburg is a former coal mining town that never recovered when the mines closed by the 1960s, and its population has dropped to fewer than 3,000 residents. InHuerfano County, which is home to Walsenburg, 20% of the population lives below poverty level.

DENVER (AP) — The only statewide ballot question in Colorado next week seems like a no-brainer: Should the state keep $66 million in marijuana taxes it has already collected to spend on schools and drug-abuse prevention?

The measure arose from an accounting error two years ago, when the taxes were first approved. And it has broad support, from Democrats, Republicans, the marijuana industry and nearly every newspaper in the state.

Depending on who you ask on the streets of Denver, sales of cannabis are now king in Colorado, at least to alcohol.

The problem is it is an all cash business because the feds consider marijuana money bad news.

Nicole Surina said she loves almost everything about Colorado's legal marijuana marketplace.

"Being able to do it in your own home and not having to worry about it is a great feeling," she said.

What's not a great feeling is trying to use a credit card to pay for pot and then being denied.

"It's an issue. So we have an all cash business," Andy Williams said.
Williams runs Medicine Man, the retail pot shop where Surina used cash to buy a product Colorado considers legal.

One year ago around this time, Colorado was awash with warnings about a new mortal danger facing children: pot-laced Halloween candy.

“Marijuana candy. Trick or treat?” a billboard on a major Denver thoroughfare warned. The ad by Smart Colorado, an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting youth from marijuana, asked, “Can you spot the pot?” above pictures of candies like peach rings and Swedish fish that are also commonly sold as marijuana-infused edibles.

One marijuana business hosts an annual golf tournament in Denver to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Another Colorado pot company donates to a gay-rights advocacy group and is a sponsor of an AIDS walk.

As marijuana legalization matures, businesses are becoming more ingrained in their communities by donating cash and time to charities — a sign that the stigma of selling a drug that remains illegal under federal law may be fading.

“It’s not all about making money and about profiting,” said Ean Seeb, co-owner of Denver Relief, a dispensary whose monetary and volunteering donations include Ekar Farm and Garden, which grows vegetables for food banks.

One marijuana business hosts an annual golf tournament in Denver to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Another Colorado pot company donates to a gay-rights advocacy group and is a sponsor of an AIDS walk.

As marijuana legalization matures, businesses are becoming more ingrained in their communities by donating cash and time to charities — a sign that the stigma of selling a drug that remains illegal under federal law may be fading.