Snoop Dogg, world-renowned entertainment icon and unofficial representative of all things weed, has been investing in tech products and platforms for the past year or so, with a particular focus on the cannabis industry. But today, Snoop is entering the tech sphere in a whole new way, with the launch of his very own platform called Merry Jane. 
 
 At its core, Merry Jane is a lifestyle media site with cannabis at the center. Loaded with both video content and editorial content, the site will serve as an information hub for everyone interested in pot, whether it be the n00b or the seasoned smoker. 
 
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 While announcing Merry Jane on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Snoop said that the site will provide users with “all they need to know” about pot, and be the encyclopedia of the cannabis world. 
 
 The site will have its own show series, each of which focusing on different aspects of pot as it relates to lifestyle. 
 
 This ranges from a cooking show, where folks can learn how to make amazing edibles (or food that pairs well with cannabis consumption), to ‘Deflowered’ (which is a show that focuses on peoples’ “first time” doing something), all the way to exclusive celebrity interviews. Snoop noted that the site will be enlisting celebrities that are “down with the team” including Seth Rogen and Miley Cyrus. 
 
 But beyond that, Merry Jane will also take a hard editorial look at the business and politics of the cannabis industry, breaking news about legalization, policy, and industry growth. 
 
 And that’s just the start of it. 
 
 Merry Jane also connects to its own database around various strains of cannabis, created by a Merry Jane editorial team, letting users learn more about the strain that might be right for them, and then connecting that reader/user with a local dispensary where they can procure said herbal supplement. 
 
 But unlike other platforms that help inform the reader about different types of greenery, Merry Jane makes it super easy to search for what you’re looking for, whether it’s a wax, edible, or flower. Users can search by type of cannabis, flavors, symptoms, and more, with high-res rotating imagery for every product listed. 
 
 Pre-launch, Snoop and Chung curated dispensaries to put on the platform, but eventually dispensaries will be able to log in to the back end and upload their own menus, update them, and maintain control over their own digital storefront via Merry Jane. 
 
 When asked about the business plan for the site, MJ cofounder Ted Chung said that “advertising is definitely part of the plan,” but noted that the most important thing is providing the marijuana business with a definitive destination for brands and retail locations to create a strong presence. In terms of user acquisition, Chung said that the demand is already there, and expects the site to surpass its competitors within 6 months. 
 
 Snoop also said that Merry Jane will be the door to bring people out of the closet. “There are so many people in the closet, and we are giving them an opportunity to come out of the closet and just admit they like to smoke. I’m a smoker, my name is Snoop Dogg, and I’m a stoner.” 
 
 Merry Jane is launching at today’s Disrupt SF 2015 conference, with a limited amount of beta testers receiving invites today. Over the next few weeks, the platform will open up to the general public. ||||| As tens of thousands of people gather to celebrate and smoke marijuana in Denver, police will be out in full force. 
 
 But it's not the pot smoking they're concerned about at the yearly event, billed as the nation's largest April 20 celebration. Instead, police say they're focused on crowd security in light of attacks that killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. 
 
 "We're aware of the events in Boston," said Denver police spokesman Aaron Kafer, who declined to give specifics about security measures being taken. "Our message to the public is that, if you see something, say something." 
 
 Organizers say the event _ which drew 50,000 people last year _ could bring a record 80,000 this year, since it's the first celebration since Colorado and Washington voted to make pot legal for recreational use. 
 
 Even with the legalization, Colorado law bans open and public marijuana use. Still, authorities generally look the other way. The smoke hangs thick over a park at the base of the state Capitol, and live music keeps the crowd entertained well past the moment of group smoking at 4:20 p.m. 
 
 Group smoke-outs are also planned Saturday from New York to San Francisco. The origins of the number "420" as a code for pot are murky, but the drug's users have for decades marked the date 4/20 as a day to use pot together. 
 
 Denver's celebration this year also features the nation's first open-to-all Cannabis Cup, a marijuana competition patterned after one held in Amsterdam. 
 
 Similar to a beer or wine festival, pot growers compete for awards for taste, appearance and potency of their weed. Denver's event, sponsored by High Times magazine, has sold out more than 5,000 tickets. Snoop Lion, the new reggae- and marijuana-loving persona for the rapper better known as Snoop Dogg, will receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from High Times. And the hip-hop group Cypress Hill was set to perform a sold-out concert Saturday evening in Colorado's iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre. 
 
 The celebration should be especially buoyant this year, organizer Miguel Lopez said, because it marks the first observation since Colorado and Washington voted to defy federal drug law and declare pot OK for adults over 21. 
 
 Both states are still waiting for a federal response to the votes and are working on setting up commercial pot sales, which are still limited to people with certain medical conditions. In the meantime, pot users are free to share and use the drug in small amounts. 
 
 Lopez said the holiday is more than an excuse to get high _ it's also a political statement by people who want to see the end of marijuana prohibition. 
 
 "You don't have to smoke weed to go to 4/20 rallies. You don't have to be gay to go to a Pride festival. You don't have to be Mexican to celebrate Cinco de Mayo," Lopez said. 
 
 "That's what this is. It's a celebration, it's a statement about justice and freedom and this movement." 
 
 Colorado's weekend celebrations drew plenty of marijuana activists from out of state. 
 
 "Never have I ever imagined I could do this on American soil," said Eddie Ramirez, an Austin, Texas, pot user who attended a "420 Happy Hour" Friday at a downtown Denver hotel. "Being a smoker my whole life, this has been on my bucket list _ go scuba diving, go deep-sea fishing and go to the Cannabis Cup." 
 
 One place pot-smoking won't be as evident this year is the University of Colorado in Boulder. The school once was home to the nation's largest group smoke-out on April 20. More than 10,000 people showed up in 2010, and in 2011 Playboy magazine cited the celebration and named the campus the nation's No. 1 party school. 
 
 Last year, school officials closed the site of the party, Norlin Quad, on April 20. They planned to rope off the area again this year. 
 
 Lopez conceded that many don't appreciate the April 20 smoke-outs. But he insisted they at least force marijuana critics to talk about the drug and consider its legal status. 
 
 "Not everybody likes everything in America. That's one of the great things, that we can express ourselves," Lopez said. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Alexandra Tilsley contributed. 
 
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 Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt ||||| Weed tech companies have an Apple problem. They face uncertain rules when navigating its App Store policies, and now a petition is circulating asking the iPhone maker to lighten up. 
 
 These cana-businesses range from digital publications and social apps to investment funds and ad networks, all dedicated to the burgeoning legalized marijuana trade. Many are based in Colorado, where recreational pot is legal, but despite their legitimacy under the law, they're having a hard time getting approval from Apple for their apps. Pot tech entrepreneurs say Apple's restrictions are unpredictable, unfair and threatening the growth of a budding industry. 
 
 Apple is notoriously arbitrary in choosing the apps that will grace its digital store, and that store controls a major share of the mobile market and can make or break companies. Last year, it banned a game called Weed Firm, which let people virtually grow and sell pot. Now, apps like MassRoots, an Instagram-style social network centered on pot, say they have been banned because Apple doesn't seem to allow services that connect likeminded marijuana lovers. 
 
 After it was kicked out of the App Store, MassRoots wrote a letter to Apple and began circulating an online petition this month. 
 
 "We're a social network for cannabis that enables people to talk about the plant in ways most people don't feel comfortable on other social networks," said Isaac Dietrich, CEO of MassRoots. "I don't want grandma to see me taking bong rips on Facebook." 
 
 MassRoots is allowed in Google Play's Android app market, but Apple is far stricter. The app had been in the Apple App Store for 14 months until November, when it was kicked off on Election Day as some states prepared to vote on marijuana laws, following legalization in Colorado and Washington. 
 
 "Apple really hurt us and our right to assemble, our right to free speech, and our right to mobilize cannabis consumers like any other constituency," Dietrich said by phone this week. "It's ironic that on the same day Alaska and Oregon voted to legalize marijuana, Apple took the opposite approach." 
 
 Apple has not responded to Adweek's requests for comment on this issue. 
 
 MassRoots is not just a novelty app. Though relatively small with 120,000 downloads before being booted from iPhones, it has legitimate business prospects of raising investment dollars, though it has no revenue yet, Dietrich said. And it's not alone in attracting investors—weed tech businesses garnered more than $100 million in venture capital last year, according to CB Insights. 
 
 MassRoots has ambitious plans for growth, including the goal of going public, Dietrich said. It's in the process of raising more money from investors, who already gave the company more than $600,000, he said. 
 
 The sector has attracted big-name investors like Peter Thiel, won the support of celebrities like Snoop Dogg and is bordering on mainstream with apps like Weedmaps gaining traction. In fact, Weedmaps, a Yelp-like service that rates pot dispensaries, was just forced by Apple to change how it promotes recreational pot shops, according to Dietrich. 
 
 Though Weedmaps would not comment for this article, sources familiar with the app's status said it now can't give specific information to users telling them which marijuana outlets in legal states are either for medical or recreational purchases. 
 
 Other app developers and aspiring pot tech titans say Apple is schizophrenic in its rules. One app called Whaxy—with plans to serve as an Open Table for pot pickups—just won approval this week, and it was built by a company that already had two other pot programs blocked. One of the banned properties calculated the THC content of certain edibles, and the other, called Nuggle, was going to connect pot smokers like Tinder connects daters. 
 
 In the case of Nuggle, the social networking component could have been the problem, according to Zachary Marburger, Nuggle founder and CEO of Whaxy. 
 
 Marburger said Apple is stifling the business of weed. "The ability for us to even be in the App Store, let alone have the features we want and need for our businesses to be successful, is huge," he said. 
 
 He was surprised Whaxy even got the go-ahead and hopes it lasts, because he fears Apple could randomly penalize the app, which lets users reserve pot pickups at dispensaries. "You can place an order at the dispensary and skip the lines, which are usually out the door," Marburger said. 
 
 Whaxy had to engineer the app to direct people to its mobile website to complete actions Apple would not allow like finalizing their pot orders, Marburger said. 
 
 Marburger supports MassRoots' petition to get Apple to change policies. Only thousands have signed so far, but plenty of pot tech firms are on board, including a digital display ad network called Mantis. 
 
 "We are not asking for Apple to endorse cannabis-related applications or their content," a letter from the pot-powered companies to Apple reads. "We are simply requesting that Apple's customers have the right to download marijuana Apps if they so choose."
– Marijuana enthusiast Snoop Dogg launched a website yesterday, and of course it's all about weed. Merry Jane, which the rapper announced at TechCrunch Disrupt, is what TechCrunch describes as an "information hub" for all things pot; Snoop says it will be a sort of cannabis encyclopedia giving users "all they need to know." There will be shows and videos centered around the marijuana lifestyle, including a food show (cooking with cannabis or pairing meals with pot), celebrity interview videos, and a show called "Deflowered," which will feature people doing something for the first time. There will also be editorial content looking at marijuana news from legalization to pot policy to the business side and the politics of pot. And, of course, there will be a database featuring all sorts of cannabis strains so that users can decide which one is right for them and where they can find it. It sounds pretty high-tech, featuring "high-res rotating imagery for every product listed" and allowing users to search via type, flavor, or even symptom. Right now the site is in beta ("I'm givn away 420 sneak peeks a day," Snoop tweeted. "Sign up now at http://MERRYJANE.com & put 1 n the air !!") but it will be open to the public within the next few weeks. (Click to read about eight other celebrities with surprising side businesses.)