What does our nation’s capital Washington D.C., Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Colorado have in common? Their economy is rapidly growing due to a huge spark in the use of recreational marijuana. Among the most common, Colorado, there are four other areas where the recreational use of the plant is legal. Since then, four out of the five areas discluding Alaska, fall onto MSN’s top ten best economies in the country. There are also 18 other states that have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis as well.

The Juneau Assembly has established zoning for marijuana cultivation, processing and retail.

Pot entrepreneurs will be able to grow their crop in some low-density neighborhoods, outside the city’s urban service boundary. That includes parts of North Douglas, Thane and out the road.

Margo Waring, who lives on North Douglas, testified that she was concerned about the scale of commercial grow operations.

“We’re not looking at your backyard raised veggie bed. This is an indoor industrial activity,” Waring said.

Grow facilities, in the designated D1 areas, are limited to under 500 square feet or about the size of a two-car garage. Residents will be able to voice concerns with the city on a case-by-case basis if issues come up.

While Municipality of Anchorage leaders are trying to figure out what to do about spice and the many problems that come with it, the co-owner of a local marijuana business is trying to help.

Her approach is somewhat unusual: Free weed. That’s Nicole Crites plan to solve Anchorage’s spice problem.

Destroy your spice in front of her, and she’ll give you twice as much marijuana for free. So far, she’s seen about an ounce and a half discarded.

“Flakes everywhere, and completely saturated with toilet bowl cleaner and disposed of,” she explained. “These are all packaged up in little one-gram, two-gram bags, so that’s quite a bit of spice. I’m happy with that.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Anchorage woman is looking for spice users and asking them to destroy their synthetic drug in exchange for marijuana.

Nicole Crites said she made her first spice-destruction transaction on Friday. Earlier this year, Alaska became the third U.S. state, after Colorado and Washington, to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults.

"Just driving down Karluk Street, anytime of day, you'll find people passed out from it," Crites said. "I don't see it addressed by anybody. I don't."

Her husband Michael Crites' Absolutely Chronic Delivery Company is sponsoring the effort.

The Marijuana Control Board is in the final stages of crafting regulations that will guide Alaska’s forthcoming legal marijuana industry. Proponents of Ballot Measure 2 believe the vast majority of rules proposed so far realize both its spirit and intent. However, we are concerned that a few remaining provisions overlook important rights for Alaskans granted under the initiative. By far the most troubling is the fact that the proposed rules do not allow for social consumption in any establishments.

Now that the Liberals are in power, Canadians want to know if prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau will keep his word and legalize marijuana or if his promise will simply go up in smoke.

According to the party’s campaign platform, Canada’s prohibition approach doesn’t work.

“It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug,” the Liberals say.

“To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.”

But even the soon-to-be sworn-in prime minister doesn’t know when that might happen.

This year has been an exciting one for proponents of both recreational and medicinal marijuana legalization efforts. Two states began to allow medicinal use, while two more states and Washington, D.C. have started to permit recreational use. Let’s take a look at the latest in these territories and how laws, regulations and rules have been developed around these measures.

Recreational Use

Oregon

There is a place near my house that is extremely popular. It’s basically a recreation center for marijuana consumers. It started out just being for Oregon medical marijuana patients, but with the implementation of Measure 91, anyone over 21 years old with a valid ID can get in now. The place has ping pong, Foosball, board games, karaoke night, bingo night, and just about everything else that you could imagine other than arcade games. The place was very popular prior to Oregon Measure 91 taking effect, and is exponentially more popular now.

ANCHORAGE -

The owners of 3 marijuana businesses pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday to a string of drug charges.

Charlene Egbe, Michael Crites and Rocky Burns are all facing felony charges related to misconduct involving a controlled substance.

Charlene Egbe, owner and operator of the Alaska Cannabis Club, attended the arraignment hearing by phone, allowing her attorney to enter a not guilty plea on her behalf. Egbe's attorney said there would be no comment on the hearing.

Burns is associated with a business known as Discreet Deliveries. In an recent interview with Channel 2, Burns said he believes his business isn't breaking any laws because it operates through a church.

A portly man with a long, white beard named Santa Claus won a city council seat in North Pole, Alaska, on Tuesday. Reached by phone Wednesday morning, his voice sounded warm and a little gravelly. Perfectly in character.

Claus, 68, had already done half a dozen interviews by 10am, he said, talking with reporters as far away as Israel. North Pole is a community of a little over 2,000 south of Fairbanks in interior Alaska. He won as a write-in candidate with 58 votes.

It seemed everybody got a kick out of his election.