A former IRS agent in Seattle is set to face trial this week on accusations that he solicited and received a $20,000 bribe from a medical marijuana dispensary.

Federal prosecutors say that after Paul G. Hurley audited Have A Heart Compassion Care in Seattle last year, he told its owner, Ryan Kunkel, that he owed $290,000 on his 2013 and 2014 taxes. But, they say, Hurley told Kunkel it could have been a lot worse: Hurley had saved him $1 million.

As Kunkel described it, the IRS agent rubbed his fingers together and suggested that in return for the leniency, Kunkel should pay off his student loan debt over time, court documents allege. Kunkel said that sounded like a bad idea, but fearing his audit would be held up, he agreed to pay Hurley $20,000 cash.

The founders of Kush Bottles Inc. developed packaging specifically for legal marijuana sales.

Plastic marijuana packaging has become, ah-hem, a growth industry.

With more than 40 percent of all states already allowing medical marijuana, and four of those also permitting recreational use, the packaging for Panama Red, Acapulco Gold and all those other colorfully named strains is heavily dependent on plastics.

Both flexible and rigid packaging helps keep the nation’s stash fresh for both the casual smoker in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska and medicinal users in 23 states.

And those packages aren’t just holding marijuana plants, as there are a whole host of edibles and concentrates for folks who don’t always, or ever, want to light up.

In news that will likely be celebrated by cannabis advocates and marijuana industry stakeholders alike, a new report concludes recreational marijuana sales skyrocketed from $351 million in 2014 to $998 million in 2015 — a 184 percent increase. The data come from the fourth edition of "The State of Legal Marijuana Markets," a joint report from the research wing of the ArcView Group, a marijuana industry investment firm, and New Frontier, a cannabis analytics firm.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is opening a marijuana testing laboratory, marking their first foray into the Washington’s budding marijuana industry.

The News Tribune of Tacoma reports that Gov. Jay Inslee signed a compact this week to make the move official.

The lab will be housed in a Fife building that houses the tribe’s cancer-treatment center and will offer safety and potency tests to holders of state marijuana licenses.

They Puyallup Tribe is the third tribe in the state to take advantage of a 2014 U.S. Department of Justice policy calling for respecting tribal policies on marijuana and a 2015 state law outlining the compact process.

Tacoma-based developer George Heidgerken, 74, has a vision. Actually, he has several, and one resides in the center of Tacoma’s industrial district.

He owns the site of the former Abitibi mill on Chambers Creek, and Olympia Beer’s Old Brewhouse in Tumwater, and the Blue Heron Mill site overlooking Willamette Falls outside Portland. He once owned the former federal courthouse in downtown Tacoma, and several years ago he bought some of the assets of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road, including mineral rights, other rights and assorted properties across 13 Northern Tier states.

Marijuana growers in the Northwest are going to use a lot of electricity in the next 20 years, enough to power up to 200,000 homes, according to a recent forecast.

That’s because a lighting module to grow four marijuana plants takes as much energy as 29 refrigerators.

After some hesitation, Washington utilities are now rewarding marijuana growers for reducing their energy use. 

PLAIN, Wash. -- Concerns about a proposed marijuana operation in the small community of Plain in Chelan County are bringing residents together for a meeting on Friday night.

"It's a wonderful community. It's a very generous community and we're all concerned," said Plain resident Jerry Jennings who's been doing extensive research about marijuana laws and zoning issues.

Jennings, who is not opposed to marijuana and voted in favor of Initiative-502, is against the location of the proposed site. It's located on two acres at 18800 Beaver Valley Road-- near homes and businesses.

Is the tax on legal marijuana in Washington too high?

A legislative panel will consider a proposal Monday to reduce the tax from 37 percent down to 25 percent. It’s just one of dozens of pot-related proposals under consideration this year.

Three years after Washington launched its experiment with legal recreational marijuana, the work continues to regulate, fine-tune and expand this new marketplace.

Pot-related proposals abound this year in the Washington legislature. From reducing the tax on marijuana to allowing the sale of pot merchandise to piloting a marijuana delivery program in Seattle. And that’s just a sampling.

One of the hardest things to do is change a stereotype – no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary. Everyone still knows one infamous character from a TV show, a movie, or something of the like that fits the bill for the stereotype, and it tends to stick. 

In the world of marijuana, that stereotype would be the classic lazy stoner. The guy with the bloodshot eyes, long scraggly hair, and a vacant stare sitting in the back of the classroom; or the hippy with the guitar singing about flower power or whatever. 

The point is – marijuana has been given a bad rep. While we can’t do anything to change the propaganda of the past, we can at least show that that is not a “standard” for what it means to be a stoner.