PHOENIX — The marijuana industry is growing like weeds and one Phoenix career fair is looking to cultivate the business even further.

The Arizona Cannabis Industry Overview and Career Fair, which will take place on Oct. 26 at the Phoenix Convention Center, will teach people how to get into the industry themselves, Medical Marijuana expert Demitri Downie said.

Downie, who is one of over 20 medical marijuana industry experts who will present at the event, said there are several different positions in the industry, such as cultivators, extractors, distributors, operations managers and investors.

In Arizona, the marijuana industry is already exploding, Downie said.

There is a place near my house that is extremely popular. It’s basically a recreation center for marijuana consumers. It started out just being for Oregon medical marijuana patients, but with the implementation of Measure 91, anyone over 21 years old with a valid ID can get in now. The place has ping pong, Foosball, board games, karaoke night, bingo night, and just about everything else that you could imagine other than arcade games. The place was very popular prior to Oregon Measure 91 taking effect, and is exponentially more popular now.

Women still continue to earn less per hour than men for the same amount of work in America, but there is one highlight — the marijuana industry.

Marijuana Business Daily reports this October that the percentage of women executives in the cannabis industry is far higher than in all U.S. businesses as a whole.

About 36 percent of executives in the cannabis industry are women. By comparison, just 22 percent of executives in all U.S. businesses are women.

KALISPELL, Montana — In a retrofitted garage in his suburban backyard, Mike Eacker tends to his marijuana plants while he waits to see whether his crop will continue to turn a profit.

For Eacker and other growers here in Montana, there is uncertainty as they anticipate the outcome of a state Supreme Court case that could effectively end commercial sales of medical marijuana and render their businesses unprofitable.

Montana is among several vanguard states whose voters eagerly legalized medical cannabis by passing broad ballot initiatives as many as 19 years ago, but left lawmakers struggling to regulate an industry that grew quickly with few rules.

Most people don’t know it but Japan has a centuries-old history with a simple yet popular plant that has only been making waves here and abroad for the past few decades.

It was once a sacred substance in Shinto religious tradition. Lore has it that ninja once jumped over it day after day as it grew, training to leap incredible heights because it grew, well – like a weed. Even today, it is a key ingredient in a common household condiment. What is it?

Marijuana.

California needs to establish its first bank for the marijuana industry, writes Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma.

This bank would not store hundreds of pounds of pungent, dried flower buds. Rather, it would provide banking services the state’s multi-billion dollar cannabis industry. This industry is currently dealing in large amounts of cash, because federal law blocks legal cannabis banking. California collects $44 million in medical cannabis taxes each year, often in cash.

Until federal law changes, California has to step up, writes Ma, in an opinion piece on Huffington Post.

I hope everyone is doing well and fared alright during Hurricane Joaquin. The state has been working with our affected residents and farmers to offer assistance.

I know many of our hog farmers are experiencing freeboard issues with their lagoons due to the excessive rainfall. Right now, the Department of Environmental Quality has extended the application deadline for Bermuda Grass until the end of October and they are expected to come out with further information this week. Feel free to contact my office if you have any questions or need any assistance from state agencies while recovering from the storm.

Question of the Week

A new world of weed is coming to the largest marijuana marketplace on the planet.

Gov. Jerry Brown this month signed regulations he said would bring “robust controls” to govern California’s long untamed medical marijuana industry, with clear standards for “local government, law enforcement, businesses, patients and health providers.”

His signature also may bring something else: a decidedly robust new era for cannabis commerce. By 2018 or sooner, marijuana businesses – from small pot farms to cannabis superstores – effectively can begin earning legal profits under the nation’s most diverse state licensing scheme for pot.

A New Zealand drug support agency says naming an energy drink Cannabis is irresponsible and trivialises drug use.

Dutch group HempFlax has invested EUR 5 million in hemp growing and processing in Romania, where it opened its first factory in October. The factory is located in Alba county, in central Romania.

Hemp growing and processing has been increasing in Romania in recent years, as the processed hemp is mostly exported and used in various industries abroad. Several local and international producers are looking to revive this industry.

Before 1989, Romania was the fourth largest hemp exporter worldwide, but the cultivated surfaces went down dramatically after 1990, reaching a few hectares in the early 2000s.