The Coffee Joint, the first establishment to hold a cannabis consumption license in Denver, is now the second pot lounge business to apply for a state social consumption license.

Colorado Springs social lounge Studio A64 successfully applied for a social consumption license at the state Marijuana Enforcement Division office three hours before Coffee Joint owners Rita Tsalyuk and Kirill Merkulov could beat them to it.

Studio A64 could not be reached for comment, but Tsalyuk and Merkulov say the opportunity to apply for a state license is a big step for all cannabis businesses. "This is bigger than us. It's just a bigger step in the industry," Tsalyuk explains. "It opens the door to do something different and plan ahead for the next year."

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A group of Colorado researchers recently studied how cannabis use affects athletes and found a possible role between the plant and pain management.

The study, "Cannabis use in active athletes: Behaviors related to subjective effects," looked at cannabis use patterns and its effects in a community-based sample of adult athletes. According to the study's authors, there had been no previous academic research done on cannabis use's subjective effects for adult athletes.

"There was not a lot of research on how weed helps," explains Dr. Joanna Zeiger, one of the researchers who conducted the study for Canna Research Group. "Athletes typically don't sleep well and are anxious, so we wanted to see what percentage of them use cannabis, their patterns of use, and what the effects are."

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DENVER - Serenity Christensen, 14, is too young to set foot in one of Colorado's many marijuana shops, but she was able to spot a business opportunity in legal weed. She is a Girl Scout, and this year, she and her mother decided to sell their cookies outside a dispensary. "Good business," Serenity said.

But on the other side of Denver, legalization has turned another high school student, David Perez, against the warehouselike marijuana cultivations now clustered around his neighborhood. He said their skunky aroma often smacks him in the face when he walks out his front door.

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Voters in Denver, a city at the forefront of the widening national debate over legalizing marijuana, have become the first in the nation to effectively decriminalize another recreational drug: hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The local ballot measure did not quite legalize the mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound. State and federal regulations would have to change to accomplish that.

But the measure made the possession, use or cultivation of the mushrooms by people aged 21 or older the lowest-priority crime for law enforcement in the city of Denver and Denver County. Arrests and prosecutions, already fairly rare, would all but disappear.

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LAFAYETTE, Colo. - The political rise of Colorado's cannabis industry is, in essence, the story of Garrett Hause's alfalfa farm.

Mr. Hause, a broad-shouldered, 25-year-old horticulturist who tills his family's land in the shadow of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, said he was never particularly interested in politics - that is, until voters legalized cannabis in 2012. He started familiarizing himself with the stringent state regulations that govern the industry. He and a friend then created Elation Cannabis Company, which uses a section of the family's soil to grow hemp.

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It's a common stereotype that people who smoke weed are a bit foggy-headed and missing a few brain cells.

But a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that alcohol is much more damaging to your brain than marijuana. In fact, the study - which was published in the journal Addiction - suggests that weed use doesn't seem to alter the structure of a person's brain at all.

Kent Hutchison, a co-author of the study, told Medical News Today that he wanted to examine what effect pot has on a person's brain because there isn't a conclusive answer to the question.

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Colorado's edible pot industry goes from public enemy to public-health leader, and wants Canada to take note

BOULDER, Colorado - A tray of tempting pastel-coloured candies sits on a countertop inside AmeriCanna's production facility. Although shaped like pot leaves and stamped with Colorado's universal symbol for the mind-altering ingredient in cannabis - a diamond containing the letters "THC" - the gummies would only provide a sugar high at this point.

Working with precision and speed, the kitchen supervisor uses a device to soak each candy with marijuana extract, so that each piece contains exactly 10 milligrams of THC, a single dose under the state's regulations.

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If consumers are going to purchase and consume beer and other alcohol products [Re: Cannabis Corner, "Are People Switching From Booze To Pot?," Jan. 19], consider purchasing them from companies who do not support or enable cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. That's not always easy to do.

In the past, large beer producers contributed to the Ad Council, which aired anti-cannabis rhetoric using lies, half-truths and propaganda in order to perpetuate cannabis prohibition, in part to eliminate competition. Another thing making it difficult to know which companies are harmful is the way large breweries are purchasing small craft breweries.

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It's a question people have been wondering about for years: Would marijuana be a competitor to alcohol if it were legal?

Now a new study is out suggesting it might.

The Marijuana Times recently reported that according to a study conducted by the research firm Cowen and Company, beer markets in Colorado, Oregon and Washington have "collectively underperformed" over the past three years.

All three states have both legal recreational marijuana and a popular craft beer culture.

"With all three of these states now having fully implemented a marijuana retail infrastructure, the underperformance of beer in these markets has worsened over the course of 2016," according to the report.

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