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Someone at a Denver Bar Just Asked Obama If He ‘Wanted a Hit of Pot’ — and That Might Not Have Even Been the Most Bizarre Part of His Evening President Barack Obama was asked by an unknown individual if he wanted a “hit of pot” Tuesday night, while visiting a Denver, Colorado bar. The incident, captured on video, shows the president laughing off the suggestion. “Asked him if he wanted a hit of pot…he laughed!” the Instagram user wrote for the video’s caption. (The off camera comment was, "Do you want a hit, man?" Obama gave a big friendly...

The Real Reason Pot Is Still Illegal Opponents of marijuana-law reform insist that legalization is dangerous—but the biggest threat is to their own bottom line. USA -- Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, did several stints in rehab after crashing his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill in 2006, a headline-making event that revealed the then–US congressman for Rhode Island had been abusing prescription drugs, including the painkiller OxyContin. Kennedy went on to make mental health—including substance abuse—a cornerstone of his political agenda, and he is reportedly at work on a memoir about his struggles with...

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Washington on Tuesday became the second state to allow people to buy marijuana legally in the U.S. without a doctor's note as eager customers who lined up outside stores made their purchases and savored the moment. People began buying marijuana at 8 a.m. at Top Shelf Cannabis, one of two Bellingham stores that started selling the drug as soon as it was allowed under state regulations. Several dozen people waited outside before the doors opened at the shop in this liberal college town of about 80,000 north of Seattle. The first three customers in line were...

Water-Guzzling Pot Plants Draining Drought-Wracked California BY HARRIET TAYLOR California cannabis growers may be making millions, but their thirsty plants are sucking up a priceless resource: water. Now scientists say that if no action is taken in the drought-wracked state, the consequences for fisheries and wildlife will be dire. "If this activity continues on the trajectory it's on, we're looking at potentially streams going dry, streams that harbor endangered fish species like salmon, steelhead," said Scott Bauer of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Studying aerial photographs of four watersheds within northern California's so-called Emerald Triangle, Bauer found that...

This is maybe somewhat misnamed, but does have an interesting collection of slideshows with commentary. Click the link above or Seattle-PI Pot Blog

With the state set to license a handful of recreational-marijuana stores Monday, retailers have been hustling to set up shop while growers and processors are racing to package pot so it’s ready to deliver Tuesday, when the first stores are expected to open. Aaron Nelson, the general manager of 2020 Solutions in Bellingham, said his store has already passed inspection by the state Liquor Control Board and hopes to open its doors Tuesday at 8 a.m., the earliest hour allowed under state law. Nelson expects to have enough marijuana for at least 1,000 people Tuesday, but said 2020 Solutions might...

The nation’s second legal recreational marijuana market is opening in Washington state Tuesday. Few Stores. Little Pot. No Edibles.

(CNN) — Some Colorado marijuana sellers are challenging Uncle Sam. They’re filing a lawsuit — saying the IRS shouldn’t be allowed to collect taxes on marijuana sales because marijuana is illegal under federal law. Attorney Rob Corry says forcing Colorado’s recreational marijuana businesses to pay violates the United States Constitution. He has filed a lawsuit in District Court on behalf of clients, some of whom say taxes could be used as evidence in any future prosecution. “They’re open records and they are admitting to a federal crime. It’s still a federal crime to sell marijuana,” Corry said.

In Southwest Arizona, where the U.S. and Mexico borders meet, the U.S. Border Patrol has made huge strides in capturing border crossers and seizing drugs from Mexican cartels, but there is one stretch of land along the border that has made life a daily hell for a tribe of Native Americans. The Tohono O'odham Nation, a Native American reservation about the size of Connecticut, is located in the Sonoran Desert, about 60 miles south of Tucson, Ariz., right on the U.S. border with Mexico. Here, there is no barbed-wire high fence, but open desert, with only a vehicle barrier meant...

A Texas man who was just hoping to graze cattle on the land he recently acquired was surprised to discover $2 million worth of marijuana plants growing in a back-woods area.

The city of Berkeley will require medical marijuana dispensaries to give away two percent of the amount of cannabis they sell each year free to low-income patients. The City Council voted unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting to amend the city’s medical pot rules, which would also allow for a fourth dispensary in Berkeley. Under the proposal, at least two percent of all medical weed dispensed at a club would have to be provided at no cost to very low-income members — and it must be the same quality that’s dispensed to regular paying customers.

The city of Berkeley will require medical marijuana dispensaries to give away two percent of the amount of cannabis they sell each year free to low-income patients. The City Council voted unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting to amend the city’s medical pot rules, which would also allow for a fourth dispensary in Berkeley.

If you’re a District resident planning to vacation in the Maryland havens of Ocean City or St. Michaels this summer, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and some D.C. activists would prefer you choose Rehoboth Beach, Del., or Chincoteague Island, Va., instead. A week after Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) successfully attached an amendment to a House budget bill that would overturn the city’s marijuana decriminalization law, Gray and the District’s largest voting-rights advocacy group said city residents would be better off vacationing somewhere besides Harris’s district, which includes all of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “I don’t think we should support someone who...

$19 million in new tax revenue. Marijuana-related arrests, which make up 50% of all drug-related crimes, have plummeted in Colorado, freeing up law enforcement to focus on other criminal activity. By removing marijuana penalties, the state saved somewhere between $12 million and $40 million in 2012, according to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. According to government data, the Denver city- and county-wide murder rate has dropped 52.9% since recreational marijuana use was legalized in January. This is compared to the same period last year, a time frame encompassing Jan. 1 through April 30.

ASPEN, Colo. — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is refusing to call the state's legalization of marijuana a success — mostly because he says that would send a bad message to kids. "Talk about bad branding," Hickenlooper said during an interview with Yahoo News' Global Anchor Katie Couric at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Tuesday, six months after recreational pot use in the state was legalized. "We don't want kids slipping off the rails." But the governor, who previously opposed legalization because he saw "so many risks," now readily admits that many of his fears surrounding the topic have gone unrealized:...

A Nevada-based startup that plans on selling medical and recreational marijuana products named former New Mexico governor and U.S. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson as its CEO and president, the company announced Tuesday. The announcement came as Cannabis Sativa Inc. said it had acquired marijuana research business Kush while company officials work to navigate changing state laws on marijuana and potential challenges from the federal government, which still views marijuana as a controlled substance. Johnson said he hoped to expand Cannabis Sativa into a major marijuana business and intends to work out of New Mexico to help develop products that...

Greenshields and Sewell envision their product selling for roughly $3,000 per pound. They believe their pot will be as good as anybody’s. But they want to be in the business long-term and establish a well-regarded brand. They don’t want to be seen as gouging the first customers just because they can. After retailer markup and before sales tax, Sewell hopes consumers can buy an eighth of an ounce of AuricAG weed for $60. Top-shelf eighths sell in medical marijuana dispensaries for roughly $40. But dispensaries don’t pay the stiff state excise taxes that the recreational system will — 25 percent...

Advocates have submitted more than 145,000 signatures for a ballot measure to regulate and tax marijuana for recreational use in Oregon. If it qualifies for a statewide vote Nov. 4 -- 87,213 valid signatures are required -- Oregon would join Colorado and Washington in legalizing the drug for recreational use. "Treating marijuana use as a crime has failed, and it's time for a new approach," said Peter Zuckerman, spokesman for New Approach Oregon, the political committee promoting the measure. "Our measure regulates marijuana in a manner substantial to how beer and wine are regulated." Like the measures passed in the...

Insert your favorite marijuana-related pun here: The Florida governor's race is blazing right along, the candidates are burning up the trail, the contest is really getting in the weeds, etc. However you put it, a ballot initiative on medical marijuana could have a major effect on the re-election campaign of Republican Gov. Rick Scott. A businessman who made millions in the health care industry, Scott faces Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor now running as a Democrat after a failed Senate bid. The Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative, also known as Amendment 2, would legalize medical marijuana for patients...

A Maryland woman who ordered a meal at a Sonic Corp fast-food restaurant got something extra with her French fries - a bag of marijuana. Carla McFarland, 35, of Frederick, Maryland, and her children, ages 6 and 8, were about to eat a chicken strips lunch on Thursday when she discovered a small, green plastic bag of marijuana in her fries, according to the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. Spokeswoman Lieutenant Jennifer Bailey said on Friday no arrests had been made and the incident is under investigation. McFarland said a Sonic employee claimed ownership of the marijuana and was promptly fired....