Prohibition propagandists like the Joker to my Batman, Kevin Sabet of Project SAMUEL (Smart Approaches to Marijuana Use… Except Legalization), are desperately crying out to the media for attention to this report from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that explains how Colorado youth aged 12-17 now exhibit the highest rate of monthly teen marijuana use, now at 12.56%.

That’s one-in-eight teenagers toking at least once per month.

“Mr. Dillinger, why do you rob banks?” Dillinger’s answer was simple: “I rob banks because… that is where the money is.”

When I was a kid in New York, many many years ago, banks used to run commercials offering toasters and other appliances if you opened a bank account with them.  I remember Mr. Coffee himself, Joe DiMaggio trying to pitch coffee machines if you opened up an account with the Bowery Savings Bank.  Perhaps today Tommy Chong could offer pipes or bongs to do the same.

As marijuana continues to move into the mainstream, dozens of Bay Area startups are banking on big business opportunities in the cannabis industry.

"We are at this precipice: There is a lot of money — real capital — that wants to come into the space," said Ben Larson, who runs Gateway Incubator, a cannabis startup incubator in downtown Oakland.

When it comes to cannabis slang, "pot" may be the first word that comes to mind, but "weed" is older, edgier, and all-American. 

Weed originally meant the way of smoking cannabis, not the plant itself. The word first appeared as a synonym for "marijuana cigarette" around 1929, when more Americans started smoking "weed" as people looked for ways to feel uplifted at the twilight of The Roaring Twenties and the onset of The Great Depression.

Medical cannabis dispensaries can’t read your brain to find out what pot strains you prefer, but one tech company might soon change that.

Emerging cannabis tech company PotBotics has found a way to use existing electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to make medical marijuana recommendations best suited for the specific medical conditions of users, the New York Daily News reports.

EEG technology employs the use of electrodes placed on areas of the scalp to detect any sort of abnormalities in brain activity.

The administration of liquid cannabis extracts containing THC is associated with the mitigation of various symptoms of Alzheimer’s-related agitation and dementia, according to observational trial datapublished online ahead of print in The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Israeli investigators assessed the use of cannabis oil as an adjunct pharmacotherapy treatment in ten Alzheimer’s disease patients over a period of several weeks. Researchers reported that drug administration was associated with a significant reduction in patients’ symptom severity scores. Specifically, cannabis oil ingestion corresponded with decreased levels of aggression, irritability, apathy, and delusions.

Amy has long blonde hair. She wears a pink leopard-print top and blue jeans with deep pockets. One blue cloth rosary hangs around her neck, a brown one wraps around her wrist. She's shoeless, and her feet are grimy. Blood has crusted around the rim of one of her big toenails. She has a deep cut above her left eye that's still healing. Instead of a scab, a small ball of dead skin has formed abnormally in the middle of the wound. 

Amy is homeless, and she's trying to sell me synthetic marijuana outside the Pik Nik Foods convenience store on Commerce Street. The going rate is about $5 for a joint or $40 for a bag, which is roughly enough for five joints. Our potential transaction ends when I tell her I don't have any cash. 

Every day I see people during the worst moments of their lives. As an emergency room doctor, I see the victims of violence, disease and age at their most vulnerable.

During one of my more depressing shifts, a nine-year-old girl (let’s call her Nancy) came into the emergency room with an arm broken at a 90 degree angle. On that same night, a drug-seeking patient (let’s call him Richard) came into the hospital for the fifth time that month with the same concocted excuse.

While I worked on Richard’s fake ailments, I was unable to alleviate Nancy’s excruciating pain. She suffered with little more than a stuffed animal to comfort her because Richard needed his fix.

Ten years ago this month, Rhode Island legalized medical marijuana. Today, nearly 13,000 patients are enrolled, not to mention more than 2000 caregivers. And a hundred new applications arrive every week. Is it sustainable?

Ellen Lenox Smith taught seventh grade social studies. She was nearing retirement when the pain got so intense she couldn’t bear it. A bone was slipping into her throat, she couldn’t breathe, and her body seemed to be falling apart. After months of tests, doctors finally discovered what ailed her: Ehlers Danlos.

“I was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos, which is a connective tissue disorder, which means all of the ligaments and tendons in my body are like overstretched elastic bands.”

Massachusetts state senator Jason Lewis during his tour of a Denver-area dispensary. A video and more below.

Last month, we reported about a Colorado marijuana fact-finding mission involving officials from Indio, California.