The legalization trend continued on Tuesday. Michigan legalized recreational marijuana, with Utah and Missouri legalizing medical marijuana. As states start cashing in on cannabis, Colorado companies are trying to capitalize.

“In Oregon, and Nevada, and Arizona, and we’re launching in Michigan and Illinois and Florida in the next month or two,” said Wana Brands CEO Nancy Whiteman. “We’ll be in probably five or six additional states next year.”

New legalized markets mean new opportunities for established companies like Wana Brands. Whiteman says they’ve set up a licensing agreement to sell their products already in Michigan, and have plans to build facilities in other states as well.

The next U.S. attorney general is going to have to respect the decision of Colorado and other states to legalize recreational and medical marijuana — at least if Republican Sen. Cory Gardner has his way.

“Whoever comes after him is going to face some pretty tough questions about where they stand on states’ rights and making sure they will stand up for states’ rights,” Gardner told The Denver Post on Thursday. “I am going to demand that the new attorney general side with the president because the president is right on states’ rights.”

Many patients in a survey of people 65 and older in Colorado found marijuana effective for pain, a geriatric medicine specialist said.

"This was just a survey, so drawing conclusions about the benefits of marijuana use are limited," said Gretchen Orosz, a doctor in geriatric medicine at the University of Colorado's UCHealth Primary Care Clinic.

The survey, "Characteristics and Patterns of Marijuana Use in Community-Dwelling Older Adults," was published Oct. 6 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The survey was anonymous and completed by 345 people.

If you have a layover in Denver, 420 Airport Pickupwill take you to a marijuana dispensary, a place to get high and on a scenic tour before dropping you back off at Denver International Airport. 

Or there's the art studio where you can smoke pot while painting with acrylics; Kush and Canvases also offers a class on rolling sushi – and joints. On a Budz and Sudz tour, you can visit both craft breweries and a marijuana growing operation in Denver, riding a tour bus stocked with snacks. 

Colorado will define 'industrial hemp' by either federal law or state statute after voters passed Amendment X, which pulled the definition from the state constitution. Colorado would maintain compliance with federal regulation if federal law changes.

The state legislature referred the measure to the state ballot, and it enjoyed bipartisan support from state senators and representatives. Amendment 64 allowed recreational marijuana use in the state, and it also added the definition of 'industrial hemp' to the state constitution. Since the language is embedded in the state constitution, it can only be changed by amendment, a potentially lengthy and arduous process.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety has issued its first-ever baseline report assessing the impact of adult use marijuana regulations in Colorado. Lawmakers in 2013 passed legislation authorizing regulators to conduct the five-year review, which seeks to better identify ways in which legalization has impacted public health and safety.

Authors reported that the total number of marijuana arrests fell 52 percent between the years 2012 and 2017. In Denver, marijuana arrests fell 81 percent over this same period of time.

In the last six years nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of recreational marijuana. On Tuesday, Proposal 18-1 will allow voters to decide if Michigan will become the tenth state.

When debating the legalization of pot, supporters and the opposition often point to the states where it’s now legal.

Supporters say, the sky has not fallen and the states have actually benefited. The opposition paints a much more grim picture of the effects.

As cannabis is legalized in states like California and Colorado, consumption has gone mainstream.

Coca-Cola has even bought into the industry, ready to capitalize on the growing trend of edibles, or cannabis consumed through eating or drinking.

Once the hallmark of counterculture in the 1960s and ‘70s, marijuana no longer carries the reputation it once did. Today, weed is available almost anywhere, whether it’s legal or not, and everyone from teenagers to the elderly are indulging, many citing health benefits over attaining a certain high. It was only a matter of time until cannabis made its way onto the culinary scene.

Would you welcome a cannabis farm as your next-door neighbor?

A federal jury in Denver is being asked to decide, in a trial that kicked off Monday, whether it agrees with a Colorado couple who claim their home is being devalued by a cannabis firm that set up business operations 40 feet from their property line.

Plaintiffs Hope and Michael Reilly say the existence of the cannabis businesses, and noxious odors it produces, are decreasing the value of their real estate and interfering with the use and enjoyment of their land.

Ribbons of fruit trees and grapevines run across hillsides under the rocky folds of iconic Mount Garfield, the place where legendarily good Colorado peaches grow. Now another crop — hemp — is sending up green spikes in the midst of all that fruit.