Few banks are serving bitcoin and legal marijuana businesses because of their “cloudy regulatory status,” and those that do are charging hefty fees, according to an American Banker story.

Companies involved in the business of pot are reportedly paying as much as $3,000 a month for basic checking accounts, and bitcoin firms are paying fees that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars, American Banker said. In contrast, most small businesses typically pay $50 or less in monthly bank fees.

Last year, The Weed Eater column debuted on 4/20 with a promise to take readers on “a cannabis-fueled culinary journey.” Since then, we’ve made a gourmet marijuana meal at Hunter S. Thompson’s house, sampled Melissa Etheridge’s weed-infused wine, brewed up some pot-fueled bulletproof coffee, explored the Joy of Cooking (while really stoned), concocted strain-specific cannabis cocktails, examined the Grateful Dead’s lasting influence on how we eat, and even shared a meal with Nonna Marijuana, the 92-year-old queen of cannabis cuisine. But perhaps, amid all the munchies and merriment, we’ve failed to make clear something vitally important: Marijuana edibles aren’t safe.

DENVER, April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Dewmar International BMC, Inc. (OTCPink: DEWM) ("Dewmar" or "Company") a leading provider of consumer brands and Hemp, Inc.

BOULDER, Colo., April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sage Analytics (www.sageanalytics.com), the developers of a new suite of advanced systems for the testing of marijuana potency, announced today that they have contracted with Evolve Manufacturing Technologies for the production of the Luminary™ Beacon.

A day before a scheduled vet appointment to euthanize her dog, Wendy Mansfield decided to try one last resort to alleviate the chronic pain of her 15-year-old labrador mix: cookies from a marijuana dispensary made specifically for ailing dogs.

Kali, a mild-mannered 80-pound rescue, was never much of a complainer. But she often licked her paws—an obvious sign of pain, according to her vet—which was typically accompanied by bouts of coughing because of the shedding fur that got in her throat. One cookie and 20 minutes later, the licking suddenly stopped.

While Oregon’s first recreational marijuana sales are expected in early-2016, the retail program’s pot-infused edibles might not hit shop shelves until early-2017 if the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has its way.

In an April 1 letter to the lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Implementing Measure 91, the liquor commission made a case for delaying the sale for the edibles “due to concerns regarding the complexity of developing rules and procedures that would allow processors to safely produce edible products under the timelines described in Measure 91.”

Picture the kind of person who hauls the fruits of the marijuana trade from place to place. In times past, maybe it would have been a questionable character in an aging sedan, eyes peeled for any signs of undue attention from cops, grifters or mischievous teens. Nowadays, in yet another still-kinda-hard-to-believe byproduct of pot legalization, the task is increasingly falling to ex-law enforcement officers manning armored vehicles.

Charles Lynch was running a legal medical marijuana dispensary in California — but that didn't stop the feds from raiding his store in 2007, throwing him in jail, and later placing him on home arrest, rendering him unable to find work and, as a result, leading to the loss of his home.

"I have no work and no money," Lynch, 52, told the New York Times's Erik Eckholm, "and I'm depending on others to survive."

Hillary Clinton's approach to marijuana legalization can best be described as a cautious, leave-it-to-the-states strategy similar to that of the Obama administration. But her wary approach to the issue puts her at slight odds with most voters, even more of her Democratic base, and even most voters in some key swing states, all of whom flat-out support legalization.

Catherine Hiller, author of "Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir," at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, where she believes she first smoked marijuana in the 1960s. April 12, 2015 Side Street By DAVID GONZALEZ

As much as Catherine Hiller refuses to admit it, marijuana is a gateway drug. Seriously, after smoking more or less every day for the past 50 years, there had to be some consequences. Yet, she did not go to jail after a random police stop. She did not end up strung out on heroin, sprawled in an alley. She didn’t even binge-munch herself into obesity.

Her daily puffs led her to write a book, “Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir.”