There are a lot of cannabis producers out there using a number of tried-and-true methods, the trick for investors is finding a producer who has a successful operation but also one that is distinct enough that it won't be eventually drowned-out by imitators. A tradition that started on a farm that had been in a family for generations has turned to producing cannabis using advanced techniques also employed by NASA.

Interest from alcohol giants like Constellation Brands Inc. and Molson Coors Brewing Co. has made cannabis-infused beverages the most talked-about product in the pot industry, but there's one widely acknowledged problem: They taste awful.

A tiny Canadian company thinks it's found a solution. Instead of infusing a drink with cannabinoids like THC or CBD, then masking the oily, bitter concoction with sugar as many beverage makers do in the U.S., Province Brands of Canada is developing beer brewed from the cannabis plant.

There has been a lot happening in the cannabis space over the past week: Canada legalized the recreational use of the drug federally and the sales from the first day turned out to be great. However, this same period has seen some cannabis stocks plummet in price, bringing to question the reason for this. Generally, share prices are associated with the expected future gains from a stock. For shares to plummet, the expected future gains are either lower than expected or the expected future losses are expected to rise.

Shopify Inc.’s (SHOP.N, SHOP.TO 12.13%) market lead in Canadian online cannabis sales should give it a leg up as other countries begin to legalize the drug for medical and recreational use, Chief Executive Officer Tobias Lutke said.

A new, state-of-the-art cannabis cultivation and extraction facility has opened in Halifax. GrowForce, a Canadian-based company that operates a complete seed-to-sale cannabis platform under Health Canada’s Cannabis Act, and Halifax-based AtlantiCann Medical Inc. (AMI), a licensed producer and member of the BANC group of companies, announced the opening of their newly built, 48,000 sq ft facility at the official ribbon cutting ceremony.

Passing a joint is becoming increasingly passé. Pax Labs Inc., a San Francisco-based startup that makes marijuana vaporizers, raised US$20 million from investors, Chief Executive Officer Bharat Vasan said on Monday. The company declined to provide the valuation.

Pax, part of a rising tide of marijuana device companies, makes internet-connected vaporizers that allow users to control how high they get when consuming the drug. The company’s sleek devices look like highlighter pens or USB sticks, and are operated through an app. Vapers can tinker with the app’s settings to puff a thicker plume of smoke, or lower the device’s LED light to be more discreet when inhaling in public.

If the rollout of legal recreational marijuana goes (more or less) smoothly this week, an Ottawa-based tech firm will be able to claim at least some of the credit.

Canadian cannabis-fanciers are expected to log on in large numbers to buy the product online after it becomes officially legal one minute after midnight tonight. In four provinces, that online shopping experience will be shaped largely by a single company: Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify.

The company was chosen to design the retail platform for online sales in Ontario, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Shopify's Vice-President and General Manager Loren Padelford laughed when asked whether he thinks he's joining the marijuana trade this week.

Scientists are hustling on behalf of the marijuana industry to find new ways to produce the most valuable compounds in marijuana, ditching greenhouses in favor of big steel vats of yeast that can "brew" cannabis like Budweiser brews beer.

The science, once it hits the market, would be a gold mine for those who perfect it, giving two separate industries -- pharmaceutical and legal cannabis -- stable, potent and cheap sources of the ingredients they need.

On the eve of legalized recreational marijuana and concerns about supply shortage, one of Canada's largest producers believes automated machines will be the key to producing more cannabis. 

Leamington-based Aphria currently has supply agreements with every province and Yukon, boasting about plans to produce roughly 20,000 kilograms of marijuana a month by spring.

As they expand their footprint to 3 million square feet, they're constantly looking at automation to reduce costs and maintain quality, said co-founder John Cervini.

"It's what's made us the low-cost producer, helped us to maintain that low-cost producer status," he said during a recent tour of the facility. 

MPX Bioceutical Corp (CSE:MPX, OTCMKTS:MPXEF) announced Wednesday that shares of the Canadian medical marijuana company have moved to the OTCQX market.

Stocks that trade on the OTCQX meet more stringent qualification criteria compared to other over-the-counter stocks that trade in the OTCQB Venture and more speculative Pink Sheets.  

“Over the past year MPX experienced significant operational changes and reached many corporate milestones, growing its Arizona footprint, acquiring cultivation, production and kitchen facilities in Nevada, opening its first cannabis dispensary in Maryland and expanding into Canada,” MPX Bioceutical CEO W Scott Boyes said in a statement.