Marijuana may be decriminalized in some states, but that doesn’t mean employers will turn the other cheek to an employee’s usage. Former local Oregon news anchor, Cyd Maurer, experienced this firsthand when she was fired from Eugene's ABC affiliate, KEZI-TV.

UNINCORPORATED JACKSON COUNTY, N.C. — The chemist who unwittingly helped spawn the District’s synthetic drug epidemic is a hard man to find. His phone numbers are listed under his wife’s name. Strangers who call his laboratories at Clemson University are told he doesn’t return messages.

To find him, you must travel deep into the Smoky Mountains and take a road that winds into the clouds. There, atop a mountain, you will discover a stooped, elderly man padding about a house cloaked in mist.

Previous cannabis-related conventions and trade shows in Washington have lacked only one thing: cannabis.

That is about to change.

Given what he’s about to bring to Tacoma, the “M” in Cory Wray’s MBA might well stand for marijuana, a substance of which he claims to be a longtime consumer.

The Bethel High School and University of Washington Tacoma graduate, 32, has inked an agreement and begun promotion for the Northwest Cannabis Classic, a three-day event featuring speakers, seminars, a trade show with vendors and, again, cannabis itself.

Previous organizers have discovered that state law prohibits actual marijuana being present or being consumed at venues that hold a license allowing the consumption of alcohol.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Washington County is a proudly conservative place. Voters here haven’t backed a Democrat for president since 1964, and same-sex marriage lost by a landslide in a referendum three years ago.

But when Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries pitched a proposal to put a medical-marijuana production plant here, the county’s five county commissioners — Republicans all — passed a resolution unanimously supporting the plan.

Residents of Hagerstown, the county seat, seem to be taking the news in stride. The consensus: yes to marijuana for relieving pain, no to recreational use.

“I think it’s all right as long as it’s only for medical. I don’t want a lot of potheads,” said Leo ­Myers, 61, a security worker at the Mack Truck plant.

Billionaire investor Donald Trump has offered his unbridled remarks on everything from Mexican immigration to Sen. John McCain's military career and mocked or attacked several of his presidential running mates, but, as political experts have pointed out, the White House hopeful has offered little so far in the way of actual policy platforms. 

Here's where Trump stands on three of the leading issues of our time: marijuana, gun control and immigration.

On marijuana legalization

Despite having called for the legalization of all drugs 25 years ago, Trump most recently said he didn't like the idea of legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes, but basically said it should be up to states to decide. 

As more and more U.S. states legalize medical and recreational marijuana sales, the lucrative industry requires an increasing diversity of jobs to run smoothly. Indeed, cannabis relies on people with skills and experience from a wider range of fields than practically any other business. Check out a handful of jobs in the pot game you might not know even existed.

It's strange how reports sometimes coincide. County Durham police said they would no longer prosecute growers of cannabis in small quantities for home use and an online petition launched by Aberystwyth University student James Owen has forced MPs to consider a Westminster debate into legalising the drug.

Are we on the path to enlightenment? Or the road to perdition?

In response to Durham’s decision to focus police attention on more serious crime because of budget cuts, West Yorkshire Police confirmed their policy of prosecution remains the same for cultivators of the weed.

Which made me think that landholders in the North might be tempted to divide their acreage into allotments and let them to amateur horticulturists south of their borders.

NEW YORK — Soon after Colorado legalized recreational cannabis, Todd Mitchem’s son proposed using the plant for a horticulture project at his Montessori school in Denver.

School officials said no way, despite support from dad, a regular weed user and chief executive of a dating app and social network for fellow enthusiasts.

Todd Mitchem at his home near Denver in June 2015. Mitchem works in the marijuana industry and also is father to three kids ages 11, 9 and 7. (Todd Mitchem via AP)

“They didn’t want to touch it. They weren’t ready to touch it,” said Mitchem, who is divorced and shares custody of his kids, ages 11, 9 and 7.

Marie Holmes made national news when the unemployed mother of four won $188 million in the Powerball Jackpot. But now Holmes is topping headlines for a different reason — the 26-year-old was recently cited for possession of marijuana.

According to a report from Fox 8, sheriff deputies cited Marie Holmes with possession of marijuana on Thursday. The citation revealed that Holmes had a half ounce or less of marijuana and drug paraphernalia at her home.