Medical marijuana is becoming more and more accepted as stories of its healing effects flood the internet. Colorado, of course, was the first to legalize marijuana as a recreational drug, and although most states have no plans to make marijuana widely available, many have adopted medical marijuana laws to treat a myriad of illnesses where traditional medication does not work.

The California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed initiative language this week for marijuana legalization in California. It’s my understanding that the California NAACP does not intend to run a campaign itself, but is filing the initiative as a kind of ‘road map’ of what the organization would like to see in a marijuana legalization effort in California. There are multiple legalization efforts in California right now (as expected), but the one that seems to be getting the most traction is ReformCA. I could be wrong since I don’t live in California, but that’s what it seems like to me based off of my conversations with leading cannabis advocates.

Boulder-based "Top Chef" champion Hosea Rosenberg is prepping a four-course Harvest Dinner this fall that features cannabis and cocktail pairings

Even though issues surrounding the public consumption and social use of marijuana in Colorado are still plentiful, event planners in the Mile High are still finding ways to get high together.

And the state’s most recently announced event, a 420-friendly Harvest Dinner complete with a celebrity chef, will surely grab its share of headlines.

Steve and Andrew DeAngelo are two of the best-known names and most-recognizable faces in the cannabis industry.

The bros started Harborside University hospital in Oakland, California, nearly a years back and opened a 2nd area in San Jose not long after that, producing among the biggest dispensary operations in the nation.

Now, the DeAngelos are seeking to reinforce their presence in the cannabis market by opening extra locations– all under the Harborside banner.

“We have growth strategies, both in other states and in California,” said Steve DeAngelo, who is seen by many as the godfather of the marijuana market. “All the western markets that we can legally operate in interest us.”

Menominee Tribe members have voted to approve both the recreational and medicinal usage of marijuana on tribal grounds, according to a tribal spokesperson.

The tribe said the referendum results are advisory, meaning tribal leadership isn’t bound by them.

The possibility of marijuana sales comes on the heels of the tribe’s unsuccessful effort to open a casino in Kenosha.

“This is new ground”, Gary Besaw, Menominee chairman, said in an interview Friday shortly after the results were announced. It’s just an advisory process. He says they can look at maximizing the benefits, and minimizing the potential consequences.

When 18-month-old Amelia Weaver caught the flu, her mother took her to see the doctor. Amelia had her first seizure in the pediatrician’s office.

“Watching my baby have a seizure was the scariest experience of my life,” mother Angie recalls. At first, it seemed a one-time episode. A year passed. Three-year-old Amelia was walking, talking, learning her letters, and counting up to 20.

Late one morning, the Weavers woke up to silence from their daughter’s room. It was strange. Amelia would usually be their alarm clock. They found her in her crib, in the throes of another seizure. Four more would follow in quick succession as the Weavers rushed Amelia to the hospital.

If Colorado or Washington police pull you over and find more than 5 nanograms of the mind-altering ingredient of marijuana per milliliter of blood in your system, you're guilty of stoned driving – whether you smoked three days ago or three hours ago.

And you could lose your license.

Not so in Oregon. In this state, so far at least, there's no established limit for the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, you can have in your blood before you are presumed to be impaired while driving.

LOS ANGELES -- Graffiti-tagged buildings, barricaded doors and iron-barred windows mark nearly every block of Avalon Boulevard as it cuts through the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Wilmington, 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

The streets are lined with small mom-and-pop shops - clothing stores, a piñata shop, garages and small, family-owned restaurants - and a clutch of illegal medical marijuana dispensaries, some located within feet of each other.

Other nearby dispensaries are shuttered with signs announcing 'closed,' 'for lease' and 'for rent' - the result of the city's most recent attempts to close the door on L.A.'s robust illegal medical marijuana industry. But when one dispensary closes, it usually opens somewhere else, police say.

SANFORD — Eric Chipman doesn’t hide his medical marijuana use, which he says best treats the lasting effects of a severe accident he was in 40 years ago.

So, during a two-week stay at Southern Maine Health Care in Sanford, Chipman told his doctors he was rubbing a marijuana-based lotion into his skin that relieves pain better than the narcotic drugs he tries to avoid. After making that disclosure, however, Chipman was told by hospital officials he was in violation of hospital policy and must remove it from the property.

The loss of his medicine slowed Chipman’s recovery, he said, because of pain and inflexibility that makes it harder to do physical therapy sessions and gain back the strength he needs to care for himself and get in and out of his wheelchair.

Less than a month after coming out of the cannabis closet, I found myself a part of the world’s largest annual gathering centered around cannabis: Seattle Hempfest. After several years of working as a local news reporter and anchor and hiding my cannabis use at all costs, I was suddenly speaking to hundreds of people about exactly that.

Calling my Hempfest experience surreal would be an understatement. Being my first-ever cannabis-related event, it was pretty great being thrust into the mix.