WYOMING-COLORADO BORDER – The Rev. Brandon Baker held in his hands two cannabis plants, one industrial hemp and the other marijuana.

They looked similar to the untrained eye, but Baker said the easiest way to spot the difference are the sparkly crystals in the marijuana plant. Industrial hemp doesn’t have them.

Most of the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana, is in the crystals, he said.

Owners of two Denver marijuana growing facilities on Friday said they were voluntarily recalling their products after city health officials learned tests found unapproved pesticides.

The recall of an undisclosed amount of plants and edible products is the second issued by the Denver Department of Environmental Health in just over a week, underscoring the city’s enforcement efforts on companies allegedly using disallowed chemicals.

Department officials said retailers should either destroy the recalled products or return them to the manufacturer. Consumers who have the products should return them to the store of purchase or dispose of them.

An 1865 San Francisco newspaper report of the author's 'Hasheesh mania' recalls high times not unlike today. Exactly 150 years later, well-appointed dispensaries and a vast array of concentrates have given new meaning to the Gold Rush

SAN FRANCISCO — One hundred and fifty years ago in America, cannabis was legal and regulated. Pharmacies sold patented tinctures and hashish candies.

Richards and Co., located in this city’s iniquitous Barbary Coast, was a popular pharmacy of the day that advertised concentrated cannabis products in newspapers.

One of those newspapers, the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, reported the following on Sept. 18, 1865:

Marijuana, weed, bud, herb, spliffs, ganja, wacky tobaccy — whatever you call your friendly neighborhood cannabis, it's actually got a stranger and longer history than you likely knew.

ResponsibleOhio disagrees with Zaino’s reading of the proposed amendment. “It’s clear that our opponents are trying to come up with any reason they can, regardless of legitimacy, to justify their anti-marijuana reform agenda,” said Faith Oltman, a spokeswoman for ResponsibleOhio.

Marijuana is illegal in Tennessee, but when and if the law changes, the business opportunities will be vast — along with the risks.

The marijuana market is spurring the creation of hundreds of new businesses in marijuana-friendly states, according to Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Those are the growers and sellers, but also the many ancillary businesses supporting the industry.

“There are quite a lot (of opportunities), given it’s a $3 billion industry and growing,” she said, speaking to a crowd of entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s NERVE conference in Nashville on Friday.

Indoor marijuana growers producing for the recreational market would be capped at 10,000-square-foot facilities and outdoor growers would be limited to 2-acre parcels under one proposal being considered by a state-appointed committee looking at marijuana regulation.

Draft rules for grow sites, pesticide use, retail sales and the production of concentrates and marijuana-infused edibles were discussed Friday by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission's rules advisory committee. 

Though anyone 21 and older may buy up to a quarter-ounce of cannabis flowers, unlimited seeds and four plants from medical marijuana dispensaries starting Oct. 1, those purchases are part of Oregon's early sales program, which is overseen by the Oregon Health Authority.

It’s just an ordinary afternoon at Weedmaps headquarters, and Justin Hartfield, the company’s clean-cut CEO, is waiting for another potential investor to arrive.

Hartfield is 31 and boyish with black glasses, close-cropped dark hair and an easy smile. He could be a management consultant or a CPA if he weren’t sitting in his office in a black leather armchair, wearing khaki shorts and bright turquoise flip-flops.

He is drinking a porter beer from a custom-made tankard, and as he explains more about today’s billionaire visitor, the dark liquid empties to reveal the head of a bright-green alien poking up from the glass.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Just two months after Minnesota launched its medical marijuana program, some patients turned off by high costs say they are back to buying the drug illegally because it’s the only way they can afford it.

State officials and the companies hired to make marijuana products trumpeted the program’s medical approach — pills and oils, no leaf products — when it launched in July. But some patients say the highly restricted and regulated system is costing them hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month— none of it covered by insurance.

Bud tenders Ieasha Semler, 23, left, and Anna Marie Alcantara, 22, roll marijuana cigarettes at the Chalice Farms dispensary in Dundee, Ore. Oregon is exploring a new path in regulation and punishment as its legal recreational market takes shape. By KIRK JOHNSON September 20, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. — About 15 years ago, when she was in her 20s, Erika Walton handed a bong to someone who turned out be a police officer, and was cited for marijuana possession. She paid the fine, she said, but the violation lingered on, haunting her record.