(See Correction & Amplification below.)

DENVER—Attorney Warren Edson would like to throttle the anonymous marijuana breeder who named a potent strain of weed "Green Crack."

He's not too fond, either, of those breeders who have given strains names like "Jack the Ripper," "White Widow," "AK-47" and "Trainwreck."

"How can I find them and strangle them?" Mr. Edson asks.

His beef: Mr. Edson is in the vanguard of an aggressive movement to make pot respectable —but decades of stoner culture keep dragging him down.