A majority of Denver voters support recreational marijuana smoking in bars and other public venues in the city, according to a new survey, boosting a new drive to expand legalized pot. 

A survey released Thursday by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling found that 56 percent of likely 2015 voters in Denver would support allowing businesses to permit pot consumption on the premises. Only 40 percent said they were opposed.

The current issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) includes two articles that review studies of marijuana's medical utility and come to similar conclusions about the applications that are best supported by the existing evidence: treatment of chronic pain, neuropathic pain and spasticity.

There is also substantial evidence that THC, marijuana's main active ingredient, is effective at relieving nausea and restoring appetite.

Builders are using cannabis "not in joints but between joists."

The jokes about homes “going up in smoke” are inevitable.

Over the course of his two-month-old campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has argued that he is the candidate for voters who don’t think Hillary Clinton is progressive enough. On issues from regulating Wall Street to campaign finance reform to civil liberties and war, Sanders has positioned himself to the left of the former secretary of state.

And now he seems to be flirting with the idea of using marijuana reform — which polling shows Democrats overwhelmingly support — as another way to appeal to voters who want to bring big changes to America.

“Maybe it’s time we began to rethink the so-called ‘war on drugs,'” Sanders said during a campaign rally in Portland, Maine on Monday.

In 2012, when Washington state voters legalized recreational cannabis, it was witnessed around the world as a landmark voter initiative. What followed was a long 19 months of rule making and lottery drawings to establish a regulated cannabis market. In July, 2014 the first legal marijuana sales began, but not every locality was open to the new law.

Pot shops would have access to banks under new legislation in the Senate.

The Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act, introduced Thursday in the Senate, would allow marijuana companies to store their money in banks.

Dispensaries are currently blocked from the banking system. Even though a number of states have legalized the use of medical and recreational marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law.

This pot paradox has forced many marijuana businesses to keep their cash in their stores because banks are prohibited from doing businesses with them.

Lloyd’s of London has stopped insuring marijuana industry firms of any kind due to conflicts between federal and state laws over their legality.

In a May 29 memo addressed “Dear Colleague,” obtained by Insurance Journal, Lloyd’s Director of Performance Management Tom Bolt wrote to U.S. Syndicates that the company has considered various requests with respect to insuring marijuana or marijuana related businesses, either medicinal or recreational in the United States, and has determined that it no longer will support insuring marijuana operations of any kind until the drug is formally recognized by the U.S. government as legal.

Regardless of where you stand on the cannabis industry, I believe we all can agree on a few points:

• Prohibition in the United States failed because people wanted to drink alcohol.
• Every business in America has rules, regulations and pays taxes – except one: drug dealers.
• The cannabis environmental damage to the North Coast is out of control and something needs to be done about this now.
• Cannabis legalization for recreational purposes is most likely coming to California in November 2016.

Reflecting growing public support for changing the nation’s drug laws, a bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced the chamber’s first bill that would legalize banking for recreational marijuana companies.

Introduced by the Senate delegations from Oregon and Colorado, two of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, the bill would prohibit the federal government from penalizing banks that work with marijuana businesses.

The Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is one of the most honorable awards in the world for musicians and songwriters. And today the Librarian of Congress (yes, that’s an actual position) James Hadley Billington (yes, that’s his actual name) announced that one of the planet’s biggest stoners will receive the top honor this year.

Willie Nelson performs at the Avalon in February 2013 in Hollywood, Calif. (Jerod Harris, Getty Images for H&M)