During the final, fire-scorched days of August, Jeremy Moberg of CannaSol Farms slept on the roofs of houses and trailers in order to monitor the wildfires that were working their way around his land in Okanogan County. “So many people left and didn’t want to deal,” he says, including a few of CannaSol’s employees. (He said they are no longer employed with the company.) When Moberg or any of his remaining tough-it-out neighbors saw a fire getting too close to a house, they’d scramble onto their tractors and cut fire lines into the soil to protect it.

A labor union is defined as “an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members’ interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions.”

Cannabis Workers Rising (CWR) is a wing of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) involved in the cannabis industry across six states and the District of Columbia. Their website explains that the CWR is primarily involved with dispensaries, coffee shops, bakeries, patient identification centers, hydroponics stores, and growing and training facilities. Some ganjaprenuers in Washington State are now turning to the CWR to help legitimize this once-illegal sector of our economy.

When Washington state legalized recreational marijuana, libertarian James Lathrop saw running a dispensary as something of a political duty. Indeed, Lathrop, the owner of Cannabis City, Seattle's first legal pot shop, is known for declaring "free the weed" just before opening his doors on July 8, 2014.

Riverfront Park might be the worst place to get high in Spokane.

Data from Spokane Municipal Court shows marijuana users are far more likely to be fined for consuming pot in public by a park security guard than by a Spokane police officer, though they’re unlikely to get a ticket at all.

Citywide, law enforcement officers have written 28 tickets for public consumption of marijuana since March 2013, when an ordinance prohibiting public consumption was added to the city code. Only six of those tickets were written by Spokane police officers, who say they’re usually too busy with other calls for service to deal with pot smokers.

Cannabis Basics, which is owned and operated entirely by a female staff, just received one of the first trademarks ever for a company that specializes in cannabis and hemp-infused products. Not only is this the first trademark logo issued for a company with "cannabis" in the name, this marks an achievement for women in the highly competitive cannabis industry.

Well, It's Illegal If You're Under 21, and Your School Probably Doesn't Allow It on Campus...

Dear cannabis-using and cannabis-curious college students of 2015: You have now matriculated in one of the most weed-friendly cities in the United States. That could be a godsend or a problem for you in the years to come, but we'll get to that in a moment. For now, congratulations.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) adopted emergency rules and issued new draft rules on Wednesday to begin the process of aligning the medical marijuana market with the existing recreational market.

The board’s actions are the result of 2015 legislation, the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, which established a priority system for licensing existing medical marijuana outlets.

The emergency rules, which are effective immediately, allow the WSLCB to begin the process of licensing new retail outlets that may sell both medical and recreational marijuana. Existing recreational stores may also apply for an endorsement to sell both.

The argument surrounding marijuana is not simply confusing for Americans choosing new laws or for prospective presidential prospects establishing a notified stance, it is puzzling for those staying in states with already-legalized marijuana. From aiming to find out exactly what’s a legal investment to what might be a possible criminal activity, cannabis legalisation can look like a minefield.

Washington as Case Study

A new bipartisan bill would eliminate a controversial source of funding for one federal marijuana seizure program. Last week, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) introduced the “Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act.” The bill is quite simple: It would prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from using federal forfeiture funds to pay for its Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program. Additionally, the bill would ban transferring property to federal, state or local agencies if that property “is used for any purpose pertaining to” the DEA’s marijuana eradication program.

Probably not, but it's worrisome that the question confuses legislators, prosecutors, regulators, and the governor.

Did Washington legislators accidentally make it a felony for someone younger than 21 to possess any amount of marijuana, as a spokeswoman for that state's governor suggested last week? Did they do it on purpose, as one key legislator claimed? [See update below.] Or did they not do it at all, as the group representing Washington's prosecuting attorneys has concluded? The third answer seems to be the correct one, but confusion on this point casts an unflattering light on legislators' ability to write laws and prosecutors' ability to understand them.