Coloradans weigh whether the more liberal legal environment has freed pot users from one of marijuana’s worst side effects.

If you ask certain pot aficionados here, marijuana is “not a drug.” It certainly isn’t sold like one, now that pot legalization has swept through these spruce-dotted valleys like smoke through the neck of a gravity bong.

The tiny downtown area of this resort city, population 6,700, is home to six street-facing, bonafide pot shops. A gondola that ferries skiers up and down Aspen Mountain is referred to, lovingly, as the “ganjala.”

The annual Los Angeles Food Fest showcases the best of the city's vibrant and diverse food scene.

This year, MERRY JANE teamed up with New York City's Mikey Likes It, a pop-culture ice cream shop with a cult-like following. Together we present the ultimate cannabis-infused dessert!

Presenting MERRY JANE's Addiction, a cannabis-infused pistachio ice cream dish with toasted nuts, chunks of baklava, and between 7 to10 milligrams of CBD in each serving.

Team MERRY JANE was on site to educate festivalgoers on the difference between CBD, THC, and answer questons. 

Within less than a year, as many as 50,000 marijuana growers in California could be required to obtain state permits for the irrigation water they consume. It is an unprecedented step aimed at preventing harm to the environment and other water users resulting from the rapid growth of marijuana cultivation in the state.

“Most of them are operating below the radar,” said Cris Carrigan, chief of enforcement at the State Water Resources Control Board. “As a result, we’ve gotten ourselves into an acute problem with streamflow and pollution associated with these activities.”

Colorado growers working with musicians to develop one-of-a-kind marijuana strains.

Pot is going the way of sneakers and snowboards.

As cannabis fights for a foothold in the U.S. economy, innovative weed growers are taking cues from a variety of industries — footwear, musical instruments, skis and snowboards, for example — and working with superstar musicians to develop signature marijuana strains, pro-model cannabis that sails off the shelves.

Colorado’s growers — captains of the state’s maturing cannabis scene — are leading the charge in this next stage of marijuana marketing that’s more partnership than endorsement deal.

The cannabis industry has quickly become a highly competitive market with hundreds of companies fighting to take a slice out of the cannabis pie. As markets become more competitive, companies can no longer rely solely on having the best product or service. The difference between your company’s life or death is a distinct and differentiated brand that your customer can identify with. The cannabis industry is no different.

The days of first to market are coming to an end and the era of brand wars is beginning. Let’s look at a few of the verticals within the cannabis industry for examples of companies that leveraged brand as a competitive advantage:

What do the coffee business and the cannabis business have in common?

As it turns out, it's more than people might expect.

The CannaCloud vaporizer is billed as the "Keurig of Cannabis" — it's a device that heats marijuana to a specific temperature without burning the plant — because it really is just like its coffee-maker namesake. 

It employs a similar pod-based technology that helped grow Keurig into the multi-billion dollar coffee empire that it is today. 

The CannaCloud was even designed by the same firm that created the Keurig, Dave Manly, the chairman of CannaKorp, told Business Insider. (CannaKorp is the company that builds the CannaCloud). 

Most people don’t think of Marijuana and technology in the same breath.  We’re all very aware of the absolute explosion of technology and the recent boom in its popularity now that smart phones and other devices have become ubiquitous.  Marijuana likewise, has seen exponential advancements in how it is produced, processed and delivered.  It is the intersection of Marijuana and technology today that has led to the ever expanding Cannabis renaissance we are experiencing.

There are currently 31 federally licensed medical cannabis producers in Canada under Health Canada's Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR).

Canada has announced plans to legalize recreational cannabis in spring 2017. Before recreational cannabis is legalized, we expect to see consolidation within the industry.

Legalization Plans Make Capital Easier to Access

The government’s plan to legalize cannabis has made several licensed medical cannabis producers attractive investment opportunities to institutional investors, hedge funds, and investments, banks.

You might remember the smoking Joe Camel from magazine ads and the chesterfield-touting Joe Canadian from beer ads, but there's a chance you'll never meet Joe Marijuana.

As the Liberal government prepares to introduce legislation next spring to legalize cannabis, it has asked a nine-member task force to look at what restrictions should be in place when it comes to marketing marijuana.

"Since marketing, advertising and promotion of marijuana would only serve to 'normalize' it in society and encourage and increase usage, it has been proposed that these should be strictly limited so as to dampen widespread use and reduce associated harms," reads the government's discussion paper on the issue.

A Portland pot dispensary has earned the distinction of becoming the first marijuana business to become part of a fraud investigation since Oregon voted for legalization. Cannacea has closed down shop amid the fraud scandal after it was learned that Oregon never issued a medical dispensary license to the business in the first place.

Tisha Siler, the founder of Cannacea, brought her medical marijuana-based business to Oregon in 2014 after she received what she thought was a letter welcoming her to open up shop in Oregon. Medical marijuana dispensary licenses can be hard to acquire, and Siler, a grower from California, believed she was one of the few to make the cut.