Online sales could be one way recreational marijuana is sold after legalization.

Canada's biggest publicly traded marijuana company is readying a new online store to hawk its wares, in a move that hints at how legal marijuana sales might soon look.

Canopy Growth Corp., which owns the Tweed, Mettrum, and Bedrocan brands of medical marijuana, will launch the Tweed Main Street store in the first half of April.

Between them, the three brands have more than 50,000 registered clients, according to Canopy. Right now, those customers have to shop for their products separately, on each brand's individual website.

Shops patronized by pot smokers have a long tradition of labeling their pipes and vaporizers “for tobacco use only.” But startups developing smoking and vaping gear are basically asking customers to put their weed in it.

Self-described cannabis product companies are raising capital in droves, while funding for startups in the e-cigarette space has all but, well, vaporized. Not a single company that mentioned tobacco, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in its Crunchbase profile raised a disclosed funding round in the past year. By contrast, at least 45 self-described marijuana and cannabis companies did.

Fund will track medical marijuana companies.

Roughly two weeks before April 20, investors with a craving for marijuana exposure will have a new instrument with which to get it in their portfolios.

The first exchange-traded fund with a marijuana focus, the Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, has been conditionally approved for listing by the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is scheduled to debut on April 5 under the ticker symbol HMMJ. According to Horizon ETF Management, it will be the first ETF “that offers direct exposure to North American-listed stocks that are involved with medical marijuana bioengineering and production.”

Marijuana’s uncertain legal status across the country has unleashed a network of innovators and entrepreneurs into a space that would ordinarily be filled with name-brand manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and federally funded research universities.

These small “cannabusinesses” are rushing to fill niches and make money in a field where the drug's illegal status at the federal level has made many start-up basics — from getting a new machine to accessing credit — far more challenging. Colorado, for instance, boasts a cottage industry of innovation because it was one of the first states to legalize recreational cannabis sales to adults, and also has a highly educated, youthful workforce.

If you're looking to follow news and advocacy about an anticipated Vermont legislature vote this week on legalizing marijuana, a search for the latest tweets that use the combined terms "Vermont" and "marijuana" will for many Twitter users yield zero results.

Same goes for searches for tweets using the terms "pot," "weed" or "cannabis."

The latest results for "jackass" and "jerk" – words generally printed without censorship by news outlets – also yield a blank page with the message: "Nothing came up for that search, which is a little weird. Maybe check what you searched for and try again."

Marijuana is big — and it’s only getting bigger. Four states voted to legalize marijuana on Nov. 8, 2016, raising the total number of states to green-light marijuana use to 28. With marijuana no longer the domain of alleged hippies and stoners (at least not exclusively), legalization has created unprecedented opportunities for tech companies looking to enter the market.

Israel, a leader in marijuana research and health technology, is attracting international investment as it tries to position itself as a cutting-edge exporter in the rapidly-growing market for medical-grade cannabis.

With estimates that the global market for medical marijuana could reach $50 billion by 2025, the Israeli government is set to allow the local industry to start exporting and projects annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Medical cannabis is a relatively new field with no universal clinical standard. Israel aims to fill the void by combining its expertise in agriculture, technology, and cannabis-based medicine, said Yuval Landschaft, head of the health ministry's medical cannabis unit (IMCA).

Canopy San Diego, Southern California's premier seed-stage accelerator program for technology and business infrastructure companies that support the legal cannabis industry, is pleased to announce the launch of the Spring 2017 class.

Canopy San Diego, Southern California's premier seed-stage accelerator program for technology and business infrastructure companies that support the legal cannabis industry, is pleased to announce the launch of the Spring 2017 class. Canopy San Diego invests capital, mentorship, and services to accelerate the development of their portfolio companies.

Shops patronized by pot smokers have a long tradition of labeling their pipes and vaporizers “for tobacco use only.” But startups developing smoking and vaping gear are basically asking customers to put their weed in it.