Don Robinson says he is bringing the “best of big business practice” to just about the last place investors would think to look for it: the marijuana sector.

“We’re a marriage of industry experts who don’t have corporate experience with corporate grey-hair adult supervision,” he said of his new company Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. “That marriage is really critical.”

Robinson, 61, has been in the food business for more than 30 years, most recently as chief executive of Toronto-based Cara Operations Ltd. Now he is running Golden Leaf, which began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange on Wednesday. With revenues of more than US$1 million a month and growing, its sales already dwarf nearly all the licensed medical marijuana producers in Canada.

About 1,000 people interested in becoming marijuana growers, processors or retailers packed into Salem's Armory Auditorium on Wednesday for two workshops about the rules governing the cannabis industry.

There were presentations from state agencies, advocacy groups and Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, on energy use, agricultural regulations, water rights, food safety, conflict resolution and more.

Let's face it, there have been lots of mistakes in the medical marijuana industry over the past 20 years. And I mean lots of mistakes, beginning way back in 1996 when California passed Proposition 215.

That was the first attempt of a state to legalize medical marijuana, and the result has been pretty messy. Sure, marijuana became available. But there hasn't been much oversight or control. And for a long time, California has been the wild west of the medical marijuana movement.

The marijuana industry may be booming in Colorado, but pot entrepreneurs face a very big problem: pesticides.

Two marijuana users, including a cancer patient, filed a lawsuit last week against a pot business that they claimed used an unhealthy pesticide to grow its weed. The pesticide in question is Eagle 20 EW, a fungicide often used on grapes and hops.

The chemicals, used to stave off mites, mildew and other pests, could also be harmful to humans when used on a product that is later burned for inhalation. Eagle 20, in particular, contains a chemical called myclobutanil that produces toxic hydrogen cyanide gas when burned.

If you’re a small-business owner and marijuana has been legalized in your state, should you care?

The short answer is, yes. Nearly half of small businesses don't have a policy about cannabis use in the workplace and 10% have had employees show up under the influence of a controlled substance at work, according to a survey released Wednesday by Employers Holdings EIG, +1.87%  , a workers’ compensation carrier.

The study polled 501 businesses nationwide that employed fewer than 100 employees, in states with varying legalization laws.

Twenty-three states have legalized medical marijuana and four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis.

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection will announce three new locations for medical marijuana dispensaries in New Haven and Fairfield counties by early next year.

Six medical marijuana dispensaries have opened in Connecticut since the state approved the sale of marijuana for medical purposes in June 2012, but New Haven and Fairfield counties currently each only have one medical dispensary serving residents. The DCP is targeting these counties because the majority of patients seeking access to medical marijuana live in either Fairfield or New Haven County, Connecticut’s Consumer Protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris said.

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator A.J. Nicholson is calling for vigilance on the part of financial institutions, surrounding the emerging medical marijuana sector, to stay within the ambit of the drug and anti-money laundering laws.

"Financial institutions must adapt their rules and procedures to be consistent with the amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act. In doing so, they must continue to be vigilant to ensure that funds which pass through their institutions are acquired only through regulated trade in cannabis and cannabis-related products," Senator Nicholson warned.

He said there is a danger that funds from the trade of unregulated cannabis and related products may find their way into the legitimate banking system.

The legalization of recreational marijuana in Denver, Colorado three years ago has brought economic growth in the area as cannabis industry raked in $700 million from last year's sale and $94 million from tax revenue in expected to be collected in 2016. However, as the cannabis industry flourishes, the local housing industry starts to perish.