This weekend, Alaska saw its first-ever job fair for careers in commercial cannabis, offering a glimpse of how the semi-legal marijuana industry is taking tentative steps towards professionalism and profits.

Theresa Collins shuffled between prospective employers and job-seekers inside the enormous, high-ceiling room that serves as the venue for Pot Luck Events, the marijuana-friendly company she runs at 420 West 3rd Avenue in downtown Anchorage. And yes, that is the actual address. Collins worked with the newly-formed Alaska Cannabis Growers Association to organize an event matching would-be workers with jobs that don’t yet exist.

“Growers, trimmers, bud-tenders,” Collins rattles off. And then there are all the clerical jobs she expects trained employees from other sectors to bring into the offices accompanying future dispensaries and green-houses, “Accounting, admin–there’s going be all kinds of different, new jobs in this industry.”

Collins wants Alaska’s new commercial pot sector to be legit–law-abiding and mature, in part...