Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was campaigning in Michigan on Monday when he suddenly opened up about his own history with marijuana.

One day before Sanders’ surprise win in Michigan’s primary, the candidate dismissed other lawmakers’ comparisons of heroin to cannabis — and he also talked on his limited experience with marijuana.

According to a new study released on March 7, more than 1 million people participate in medical marijuana programs in the United States.

The new study, conducted at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, found that “while 14 of the nation’s 24 medical marijuana programs were essentially non-medical in practice, they enrolled more than 99 percent of overall participants. Fewer than one percent were enrolled in ‘medicalized’ programs that adhere to accepted professional standards in medicine.”

Inside a nondescript warehouse south of I-70 in Denver, Nick Hice opens a door into a large room holding a few hundred cannabis plants. One of the first things you notice about the room: It's bright. Glaring yellow high-pressure sodium light fixtures are strung from the ceiling. The whole place has a feverish glow. Even though it's indoors, Hice and his workers here at Denver Relief typically wear sunglasses when working here.

It's those lights that are the key to growing commercial marijuana successfully.

Welcome to the oil boom.

It's common knowledge we don't actually know much about how vaping affects our bodies. Sure, extracting vapor doesn't create carcinogens, and it's a more effective way to get the most THC and other cannabinoids from your bud. However, the first disposable vape pen I tried burned my throat after a few rips, and some of my friends experienced headaches that had never happened after smoking flower.

There are only seven marijuana dispensaries in Aspen.

But they are presumably as busy as liquor stores in the community — and sometimes more so.

According to newly released City of Aspen statistics, alcohol sales exceeded marijuana sales in the community in 2015.

But during two months of the year — March and April — cannabis was king.

The numbers were shared by the Aspen Times, which points out that separate marijuana and alcohol sales stats for 2015 represent a first for the community.

Toni Richard, the mother of a 15-year-old who has autism and epilepsy, allows her son to combat the 3,000 seizures a day he was once afflicted with by using an unconventional method: medical marijuana.

"In 13 years, my son had slept 50 nights, so the night we started medical marijuana, he slept through the night, and now he pretty much sleeps almost every night," Richard told KRNV. "I am not a drug dealer. I am just a mom trying to keep my child alive. It's not a gateway drug — we're just trying to keep our children alive."

Her son went 375 days without a seizure since first using medical marijuana as a treatment, according to Richard. He was taking between 20 to 25 pills a day for the seizures. 

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are studying the detection of prenatal marijuana use in a legalized environment. The study of marijuana use in pregnancy is only possible in a few states.

Although physicians tell women they should not use marijuana in pregnancy, it is difficult to provide them with data to support the recommendation. The need for data-supported information grows as marijuana laws change nationwide.

The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute recently awarded a Child and Maternal Health Pilot Grant to Assistant Professor Torri Metz, MD, to develop a questionnaire for new mothers about marijuana use during their pregnancy.

o this point in the U.S. presidential race, the kingmakers of the marijuana movement haven’t been feeling the Bern, as in Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

My husband is very supportive. My three grown sons feel some mixture of pride, amusement, and embarrassment about my latest book Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir, which has been featured in popular publications and websites. My friends are happy for me in my new role as a marijuana advocate.

But my mom does not approve.

You would think at my age it wouldn't matter. After all, I'm collecting Social Security myself. Barcroft TV, a UK outfit, made a short documentary about me with the demeaning title, "Potty Pensioner Puffs A Joint A Day For Fifty Years."

Still, I want my 92-year-old mother to encourage me in my candor about cannabis.

BOSTON – Massachusetts voters are expected to head to the polls in November and likely vote on a ballot measure fully legalizing marijuana, four years after they signed off on medical marijuana and eight years after approving decriminalization of small amounts of the substance.

A special state Senate committee, whose members recently traveled to Colorado to see the legal cannabis industry up close, issued its official report on Tuesday, sounding a skeptical note on legalization and hoping to promote a cautious approach.

Here are some takeaways from the report: