CBS Denver:  “Marijuana may be legal in Colorado, but the Denver Police Department is confiscating more weed than they ever have before.  ‘Prior to the legalization with Amendment 64, we received small quantities of marijuana, maybe a couple ounces or a few pounds,’ said Lt. Cliff Carney, who manages the evidence and property section for the department. ‘After 64, we’re seeing huge seizures the come in. We’ll get sometimes 300 to 400 boxes of marijuana at one time on one seizure.’  Denver police are confiscating so much marijuana that Carney told CBS4 they are running out of space to store it.”

Phoenix New Times:  “In Colorado, the past 16 weeks have seen 15 recalls of cannabis products because of pesticides, including the largest such recall last week.  The state’s one of several that now mandate or encourage testing of recreational marijuana for contaminants.  But in Arizona, the products of medical-marijuana sellers and cultivators never have been officially scrutinized. If the state approves recreational use in November, that’s going to change — with a likely increase in pot pricing.  Buds, concentrates like shatter, and edibles could contain relatively high levels of pesticides and other contaminants, and the state’s 85,000-plus qualified patients never would know.

Phoenix New Times:  “In a sign that may bode well for legalization in Arizona next year, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper sounds surprisingly upbeat about his state’s bold marijuana law in an interview with New Times‘ sister publication in Denver, Westword.  Opponents of planned ballot measures in Arizona for the November 2016 election often point to Colorado as a failed experiment that Arizona shouldn’t repeat. At an upcoming seminar by legalization opponents, for instance, six of seven speakers are from Colorado and will no doubt try to steer the audience toward the false idea that Arizona’s neighboring state is a disaster because of marijuana.  Hickenlooper . . . opposed the historic 2012 measure that legalized pot for adults 21 and older. But in the interview published on Wednesday inWestword, he says legalization hasn’t been so bad, after all.”

Associated Press:  “Edible marijuana products in Colorado may soon come labeled with a red stop sign, according to a draft of new rules released Wednesday by state marijuana regulators.  The state may also ban the word “candy” from edible pot products“

Bloomberg Business:  “People are flocking to buy weed, but they’re not paying as much for it. . . . [P]rices are declining faster than some had expected, while the number of people visiting the stores has increased. . . . Since last June, the average price of an 1/8th ounce of recreational cannabis has dropped from $50-$70 to $30-$45 currently; an ounce now sells for between $250 and $300 on average compared to $300-$400 last year. More competition and expansion of grow facilities contributed to this price decline, but it is also a natural result for any maturing industry as dispensaries try to find the market’s equilibrium price.

The Aspen Times:  “These are interesting and challenging times for Jordan Lewis, CEO of Silverpeak Apothecary, which sells both recreational and medical marijuana in Aspen.  Lewis will appear before Pitkin County commissioners . . . in a work session focused on the marijuana smells that some neighbors say are wafting from High Valley Farms, the midvalley pot farm that Lewis owns and operates. . . . Neighbors are upset about the smell, and commissioners are listening. . . . The license is up for renewal in September, and commissioners have said they won’t approve it should the stench persist.”

myfoxny.com:  “Colorado is full of all-inclusive ranch resorts where guests hike, fish, play horseshoes and roast marshmallows. This one has a new offering – smoking pot.  The 170-acre CannaCamp opening July 1 in Durango in southwest Colorado calls itself the nation’s first cannabis-friendly ranch resort.  Guests won’t be given marijuana, because that violates state law. Instead, the resort allows guests to bring their own pot and use it while at the resort.”

USA Today:  “The smell of marijuana hung heavy over the city this weekend as partiers celebrated the unofficial “420” pot holiday.  April 20 has long been an important date within the marijuana community, and Denver for several years has hosted a massive marijuana festival to mark the day. This year was no different — except that pot smokers were joined in the city by investment bankers, lawyers and angel investors looking to cash in on the newly legal and fast-growing industry.”

The Gazette:  “Colorado made headlines worldwide when recreational marijuana went on sale to the public in January 2014. . . . And amid all the hoopla around legalized recreational pot, its older cousin, the medical marijuana (MMJ) industry — with 505 stores throughout Colorado — quietly continued to grow, adding patients by the thousands who seemingly had no problem finding physicians willing to diagnose what critics say are often phantom medical conditions.”

Associated Press:  “a federal lawsuit is being filed on behalf of two Colorado citizens by a Washington D.C.-based group to shut down the state’s $800-million-a-year marijuana industry early Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, in Denver. The lawsuit is being sponsored by a group called the Safe Streets Alliance, which is based in the nation’s capital and opposes marijuana legalization. . . . The owners of a mountain hotel and a southern Colorado horse farm argue in a pair of lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver that the 2012 marijuana-legalization measure has hurt their property and that the marijuana industry is stinky and attracts unsavory visitors.”

The Hill: “Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana was a bad idea, the state’s governor said Friday.  Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who opposed the 2012 decision by voters to make pot legal, said the state still doesn’t fully know what the unintended consequences of the move will be.”

Yahoo News:  “Nebraska and Oklahoma challenged neighboring Colorado’s recreational marijuana laws in the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday amid complaints its pot was seeping across their borders, and Colorado vowed to defend its laws.”

Associated Press:  “Colorado health officials want to ban many edible forms of marijuana, including brownies, cookies and most candies, limiting legal sales of pot-infused food to lozenges and some liquids.“

CBS Denver:  “Pot smoking — and its stereotypical associations like munching on carbohydrates and other treats — seems like it’d be your teeth’s worst enemy.  And now some Colorado dentists are saying more research needs to be done on how smoking pot can affect dental health, including causing an increase in cavities.”

CBS 4 Denver:  “Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it’s also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry.  ‘There’s an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak,’ David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. ‘I figured this would be a good place to start over’.”

National Review:  “For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries . . . . Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.  At least 259 times in the first six months of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, beneficiaries used their electronic-benefit transfer (EBT) cards to access public assistance at weed retailers and dispensaries, withdrawing a total of $23,608.53 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash, NRO’s examination found.

USA Today:  “A study on the Colorado marijuana market is providing economists and business professionals an inside look at the pot industry for the first time. Regulators in the Centennial State have released the brief for the Colorado Department of Revenue, which reveals a number of interesting items, including that Coloradans are consuming a lot more cannabis than was previously estimated. . . . What is the major takeaway from the study? That folks in Colorado are consuming a lot of marijuana“

USA Today:  “In light of Washington’s start Tuesday of legal marijuana sales, USA TODAY asked Colorado experts for suggestions on how newbie marijuana buyers should proceed. We’ve edited and condensed the answers for clarity and space.”

Associated Press:  “A police raid at an Amsterdam-style cannabis lounge in Denver has triggered a debate over where adults can smoke pot in a state that allows recreational marijuana consumption – but not in public.  Denver police showed up last week at Maryjane’s Social Club, one of dozens of private pot-smoking clubs in Colorado operating in a legal gray area. The officers handcuffed smokers, seized drug paraphernalia and ticketed the club’s owner for violating state law banning indoor cigarette smoking.”

Brietbart:  “In states with legalized recreational marijuana and legalized medical marijuana use, police are finding themselves sued by citizens who have wrongly had their pot seized as evidence. Only a few years ago, police could confiscate ‘illegal pot plants by ripping them out by their roots and stashing them away in musty evidence rooms to die are now thinking twice about the practice.’  A new trend is growing where people are suing not only for return of the stash, but sometimes monetary restitution.”

Denver Post:  “Police in some medical marijuana states who once routinely seized illegal pot plants by ripping them out by their roots and stashing them away in musty evidence rooms to die are now thinking twice about the practice.  From Colorado and Washington state to California and Hawaii, police are being sued by people who want their marijuana back after prosecutors chose not to charge them or they were acquitted.”

USA Today:  “The Hershey Co. has sued a Colorado marijuana edibles maker, claiming it makes four pot-infused candies that too closely resemble iconic products of the chocolate maker.  The trademark infringement lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver this week against TinctureBelle and TinctureBelle Marijuanka.”

CBS Denver:“Cannabis in the classroom — a new marijuana-themed university is hosting classes on the Auraria Campus in Denver, and not everyone is happy about it. Students might not find “Marijuana 101″ on the catalogs of the three universities that occupy Auraria Campus, but CBS4′s Rick Sallinger found it’s certainly being taught there”

Washington Post:  “the banking industry, which is federally regulated, is steering clear of anything to do with Colorado’s burgeoning marijuana industry. And that means the whole pot value chain – from grower to retailer to customer – is cash only.  In addition to making it harder for pot retailers to grow and manage a legitimate business, a cash-only enterprise is harder for the government to track for tax purposes and an easy target for criminals.  Wednesday, Colorado lawmakers . . . . approved a plan to setup a network of uninsured cooperatives that would offer basic banking services to pot businesses.

ABC News:  “The Colorado Symphony Orchestra said Tuesday it will play a series of “cannabis-friendly” fundraising concerts sponsored by the state’s burgeoning pot industry.  The state’s only full-time professional orchestra hopes the unusual shows dubbed ‘Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series’ will boost its audience as it struggles with dwindling attendance and shrinking budgets.”

Washington Times:  “The Mile High City was jammed with pot revelers Sunday for the annual 4/20 festival, but the mood was far from celebratory Monday as state legislators moved to tighten rules on marijuana products in the wake of two tragic deaths.  The Colorado House passed unanimously bills to set possession limits for concentrated forms of marijuana such as hash oil, and to make cookies, candy and other foods infused with pot more easily identifiable.”

Washington Times:  “Just because marijuana is legal in Colorado doesn’t mean the black market for the drug has disappeared. Rather, the opposite, police officials said.  ‘[Legalization] has done nothing more than enhance the opportunity for the black market, said Lt. Mark Comte of the Colorado Springs police vice and narcotics unit, in The Associated Press. ‘If you can get it tax-free on the corner, you’re going to get it on the corner’.”

CBS Denver:  “More people are claiming they are being pulled over out of state to see if they have marijuana simply because they have Colorado license plates.  They strongly suspect it’s because Colorado stores now legally sell marijuana to those over the age of 21.  The Colorado Drug Investigators Association says there have been a lot of seizures of marijuana from cars leaving Colorado and going out of state.  Drivers are complaining they are being stopped for no good reason.”