DENVER - Anyone who drives by Sports Authority Field at Mile High this week may notice a new billboard about marijuana.

A group called "Smart Colorado," known for opposing legal access to marijuana, debuted a billboard Monday on Federal Blvd.

The billboard reads, in part, "Mom, is today's pot a hard drug?" The group hopes the billboard leads to conversations that ultimately lead to research on THC potency.

"We feel like it's really important to have a national conversation about the increasing marijuana potencies and health effects," Diane Carlson, co-founder of Smart Colorado said. "It's long overdue. It's something that came up in the Democratic debate and we hope it gets asked at the GOP debate in Boulder this Wednesday."

Economic development package from city of Pueblo for joint venture between O.penVape and Thar Process Inc. includes $4.89 million in help retrofitting long-vacant Boeing rocket plant for hemp oil extraction

A defunct Boeing rocket plant in Pueblo will be converted into a hemp oil production facility that will employ 163 people by 2018, Pueblo Economic Development Corp. said Friday.

The jobs are expected to pay an average of $41,590 plus benefits. This is the biggest jobs announcement by PEDCO since 2008, when Vestas said it would hire 450 people, the Pueblo Chieftain reported.

AUKEGAN, Ill. — A judge in Lake County has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed a Denver consultant was highly involved in too many Illinois medical marijuana growing facilities.

Judge Mitchell L. Hoffman last week ordered the complaint against Kayvan Khalatbari (KAY’-vohn Kahl-aht-BAR’-ee) dismissed “with prejudice,” a legal term that generally means the plaintiff can’t file the same complaint again.

Khalatbari is a co-founder of Denver Relief, which has retail and cultivation operations in Colorado and offers consulting services in other states.

The marijuana entrepreneurs of Colorado will not have a special bank to call their own — unless a federal judge intervenes on their side.

The designated guardians of the U.S. banking system — the Federal Reserve — has declined to accept so much as a red cent that can be traced back to weed, because according to federal law, marijuana is a Schedule 1 narcotic.

Weirdly, the Treasury Department seems less concerned about that part. The Fourth Corner Credit Union (the bank that suffered a denial in Colorado) was designed using rules issued by the Treasury last year for how banks can accept drug money from states where those drugs are legal. Fourth Corner was chartered specifically to service the state’s $700 million a year industry and create a safe place to bank for it.

Among the decisions Colorado voters will make in voting that ends Nov. 3 is how to allocate $66 million collected from retail marijuana taxes.

If voters approve Proposition BB — the Colorado Marijuana TABOR Refund Measure — the state retains the money. If it is rejected, the revenue will be refunded to the marijuana industry and taxpayers.

The state estimates each taxpayer would receive about $8.

Under Article X of the Colorado Constitution — generally referred to as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights — voters must ratify any new taxes.

Many legitimate marijuana businesses are still locked out of the financial system.

Marijuana-related businesses in Colorado are so profitable that the government doesn't know what to do with all of the tax revenue they're generating. But business owners face a more immediate problem: Where to stash their own profits when banks won't take it.

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Amid Ohio’s intensifying campaign over legalizing marijuana, the face of Issue 3 is a green-eyed 4-year-old girl named Addyson Benton, who is learning to handle her Barbie trike.

“That’s the goal for this year, to get her to ride,” said Heather Benton, standing in the backyard of the rental house as Addyson slid into the seat, lifted her sunny face and beamed. “But it’s one thing at a time.”

How risky, really, is lending to Colorado’s marijuana industry? It depends on whom you talk to, and, whoever it is, you’re not going to come away feeling any better, or worse.

That’s because the unknowns abound, more than in any other business lending, and unknowns are anathema to lenders, as opposed to venture capitalists, who assess what is known, and then bet on it.

Both investor categories are making assumptions about future events, with lenders taking the conservative approach. It’s pretty hard to know what those events might be when you don’t even know the rules of the game.

On January 1, 2014, Colorado became one of the first states to allow recreational marijuana sales. But the law contains one little twist.

"People can buy it. They can use it. But in a lot of cases, they don’t have anywhere they can use it legally," says Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Yes, weed is legal in Colorado. But it’s illegal to consume it in most public locations.

The votes are advisory only, meaning it's up to tribal leaders on the next step.

We all need more and better information about the pros and cons of marijuana. What can pain management doctors tell us about the value of it for their patients? And what detrimental effects does it have on people?

Law enforcement officials certainly have some opinions about the impact of marijuana on drivers. Judges and attorneys certainly could add some perspectives on the usage of marijuana, especially regarding its potential to create additional illegal drug use.