Michelle Rutter

The pineapple necklace Michelle Rutter wears is an homage to her home state of Virginia: The fruit is a colonial sign of welcoming.

{mosads}But she says a lot of people tease her about its seeming reference to “Pineapple Express,” a marijuana-laden movie and a strain of the drug.

Rutter, after all, is a lobbyist for the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group for weed-related businesses. But “history is something really near and dear to me,” she says.

In her free time, Rutter likes strolling local historic neighborhoods and visiting Washington’s many museums and galleries. And, if she could live in any other era, it would be the 1700s.

“To wear a ball gown every day? Sign me up,” she said. “Although I don’t know how well being a cannabis lobbyist would go over with people in the 18th century. It still doesn’t go over well with everybody today.”

— Megan R. Wilson