One year ago around this time, Colorado was awash with warnings about a new mortal danger facing children: pot-laced Halloween candy.

“Marijuana candy. Trick or treat?” a billboard on a major Denver thoroughfare warned. The ad by Smart Colorado, an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting youth from marijuana, asked, “Can you spot the pot?” above pictures of candies like peach rings and Swedish fish that are also commonly sold as marijuana-infused edibles.

SPARKS, Nev. -- Donald Trump softened his tone on marijuana legalization on Thursday, saying at a political rally that states should be allowed to legalize marijuana if they chose to do so. Trump reaffirmed that he supports making medical marijuana available to patients who are very sick.

"In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state," Trump said while taking a handful of questions during a political rally at a casino outside Reno on Thursday afternoon.

One marijuana business hosts an annual golf tournament in Denver to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Another Colorado pot company donates to a gay-rights advocacy group and is a sponsor of an AIDS walk.

As marijuana legalization matures, businesses are becoming more ingrained in their communities by donating cash and time to charities — a sign that the stigma of selling a drug that remains illegal under federal law may be fading.

“It’s not all about making money and about profiting,” said Ean Seeb, co-owner of Denver Relief, a dispensary whose monetary and volunteering donations include Ekar Farm and Garden, which grows vegetables for food banks.

Next Tuesday voters in Ohio will decide whether to legalize marijuana. If Issue 3 passes and if another constitutional amendment aimed at overriding it does not, Ohio will be the first state to leap from complete pot prohibition to legalization for both medical and recreational use. It will also be the most populous state and the first state east of the Great Plains to legalize marijuana. A legalization victory in Ohio, a bellwether in presidential elections, could have a big impact on politicians’ willingness to deviate from prohibitionist orthodoxy and on voters’ willingness to supportnext year’s crop of marijuana initiatives in other states.

New figures show more than 1,550 people were referred for treatment for cannabis use in Wales in the last year.

Alcohol problems still amount to more than half of all substance misuse cases in Wales, according to Public Health Wales.

Heroin accounts for nearly a fifth of cases.

But is cannabis - just under 10% of cases - something we should still be worried about in Wales? 

HOW MANY ARE USING CANNABIS?

What causes addiction? Easy, right? Drugs cause addiction. But maybe it is not that simple.

Check out Johann Hari’s book about drugs and addiction: http://chasingthescream.com

Two candidates nodded to liberalizing standards about marijuana in the United States on Wednesday—one expected, one a little more surprising. In the latter case, Senator Ted Cruz offered, during the GOP debate, to buy CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla “some famous Colorado brownies.”

OLYMPIA, Wash.— When recreational marijuana became legal in the state, some feared there would be more people driving high and causing deadly crashes. A new report from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission says some of those fears may have been justified.

This is the first time the state has looked at how pot has impacted traffic safety in this detail. It looks at how many marijuana-positive drivers were involved in deadly crashes.

Staci Hoff, research director for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, says for the first time the state has data that differentiates drivers who had residual marijuana in their system versus active levels of THC.

The number of Americans consuming marijuana has doubled over the past decade. Or so it is claimed many in the mainstream media. But to those of us who have closely followed survey data over the past decade, last week’s sensational claim immediately aroused suspicion. Why? That is because the bulk of the available data clearly says otherwise.

New figures show more than 1,550 people were referred for treatment for cannabis use in Wales in the last year.

Alcohol problems still amount to more than half of all substance misuse cases in Wales, according to Public Health Wales.

Heroin accounts for nearly a fifth of cases.

But is cannabis - just under 10% of cases - something we should still be worried about in Wales?

HOW MANY ARE USING CANNABIS?