WASHINGTON -- Federal workers should just say no to marijuana, no matter where they live, according to a D.C. directive out this week.

"Recently, several states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized the use of marijuana," Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta wrote in a memo to agency heads Tuesday.

Questions about how that impacts federal workers abound, so Archuleta delivered the goods in a definitive memo: "Federal law on marijuana remains unchanged," she said. Possession is illegal under federal law, and an executive order issued by President Ronald Reagan also mandates a "Drug-Free Federal Workplace."

Federal employees can't use illegal drugs, "on or off duty," and "persons who use illegal drugs are not suitable for Federal employment," the 1986 order states.

That includes Alaska, home of the largest percentage of federal employees outside Washington, D.C., where voters legalized recreational marijuana last year.

"Drug involvement can raise questions about an individual's reliability, judgment, and trustworthiness or ability or willingness to comply with laws, rules, and regulations, thus indicating his or her employment might not promote the efficiency or protect the integrity of the service," Archuleta wrote in the memo. "However, the individual's conduct must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."

The long and short of it? Federal employees can be fired for using marijuana.