The legalization of marijuana – no matter how sticky the parameters – will undoubtedly bring the people behind the scenes of a billion-dollar industry to the forefront. 

Women, in fact, comprise a large portion of growers, dispensary owners, and canna-business professionals. 

To help them emerge from the shadows and connect, Women Grow was established last year in Denver, Colorado. Since then, it’s provided a professional network for both established entrepreneurs and newbies of the cannabis industry.

With monthly events for women – and men – in 25 plus cities across the country, Women Grow is launching a Portland chapter this week with its first networking event on May 7th at McCormick Mansion.

Defensive end prospect Shane Ray was about to enter the 2015 NFL Draft as a blue-chip prospect who was in consideration to be drafted in the top 10, but those dreams were quickly shattered.

Ray was busted Monday morning for possession of pot after he was pulled over by the police for not driving in the right lane on the highway he was on.

Due to his brush with the law, Ray has entered a drug abuse program that is run by the NFL. He is currently in Phase 1 of the program, which is the behavioral part of it.

Ray picked the worst time possible to be cited for marijuana possession, as the draft will start on Thursday.

There is a legitimate chance that Ray may fall out of the first round, as he has also battled a foot injury leading up to his big day.

JEFFERSON CITY 

It took a little while for Missouri Rep. Shawn Rhoads’ colleagues to wrap their heads around the idea of taxing marijuana and other illegal drugs.

“A drug dealer is supposed to show up and buy a tax stamp for his drugs?”Bill Lant, a Republican from southwest Missouri, asked during a committee hearing on the bill.

Most of the hearing went pretty much like that.

“They needed a little time to let the idea sink in,” said Rhoads, a south-central Missouri Republican. “About 15 minutes after the meeting, I had someone grab me and say, ‘I get it now.’”

Steve Mitchem’s career has spanned from evangelical minister to president of the luxury jeweler Tivol to the controversial world of online lending.

For the last few years, he’s also been growing and selling marijuana.

The Kansas City businessman is a partner in Buddy Boy Brands LLC, one of Colorado’s largest medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation companies. Over the last few months, he’s been doing his part to convince Missouri lawmakers to legalize his business in his home state.

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MO. (KTVI) – Missouri and marijuana are not on good terms. A man faces a life sentence after being convicted as a persistent drug offender. More than 100 legislators are now asking Missouri’s Governor to set him free.  In the state, possession of more than 35 grams of marijuana is considered a felony and punishable by a $5,000 fine and seven years in prison.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri would regulate and license the growing of industrial hemp as a raw material for manufacturing under a measure supporters say is an economic development measure.

The Missouri House gave initial approval Tuesday to a bill that would legalize the cultivation of hemp, which contains very low levels of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol in marijuana.

Republican Rep. Paul Curtman, of Pacific, says many products are made with hemp that must be imported from foreign countries.

He says there's no danger that the measure would allow easier access to marijuana.

We know the end is coming, but pot prohibition is going to have to be undone state by state. Here are the ones least likely to jump on the bandwagon.

Marijuana prohibition in the US is dying, but it isn't going to vanish in one fell swoop. Even if Congress were to repeal federal pot prohibition, state laws criminalizing the plant and its users would still be in effect—at least in some states.

And it's probably a pretty safe bet that Congress isn’t going to act until a good number of states, maybe more than half, have already legalized it. That process is already underway and is likely to gather real momentum by the time election day 2016 is over.

EAST ST. LOUIS — The metro-east’s first medical marijuana farm is set to be housed in a vacant U.S. Cellular switching station just south of where Interstate 70 crosses the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge into St. Louis.

At 737 Locust Ave., the site covers 6.7 acres at the end of an unpaved road that stretches nearly half a mile from Illinois 3. The site, which is bounded by railroad tracks on the west and an entry ramp to I-70 under construction to the north, is heavily wooded and home to local wildlife, including turkeys.

OVERLAND, MO (KTVI) – Every day, more than 9 million packages are shipped through FedEx. That’s a lot for workers to sift through, as they keep an eye out for prohibited items. But sometimes, one package stands out. Like a small freezer that arrived at the Overland FedEx terminal from California.

“They could tell it smelled like marijuana almost immediately,” says Overland Police Chief Mike Laws. FedEx employees called police immediately.

Officers discovered about 4,400 grams, or about 10 pounds, of high-grade marijuana, stuffed into 12 plastic bags, stacked inside the freezer.

Police say 19 year-old Zachary Haferkamp sent this package to himself from Redding, California. The Hillsboro resident was taken into custody at the FedEx in Fenton.