Shopify (SHOP), Canada's home-grown e-commerce firm, could become a hot marijuana stock owing to the country's legalization of recreational cannabis, says an analyst.

Recreational cannabis becomes legal in Canada Oct. 17. As it does, the Shopify(SHOP) platform could help drive merchandise volume and revenue, KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Monika Garg said in a note to clients. The company's headquarters is in Ottawa, Canada's capital.

A Metro Vancouver cannabis producer has launched a virtual tour of its growing facility in the hopes of increasing transparency and easing some of the social tensions around legalization, according to the company’s chief executive officer.

Dan Sutton, CEO of Tantalus Labs in Maple Ridge, said opening Tantalus’ SunLab facility to the public eye was meant as a gesture of good faith, intended to assuage the fear of the unknown which may inhabit some corners of the Canadian psyche as Oct. 17 draws closer. “It's like extending an open door to your neighbour,” Sutton said in an interview, adding his hope was to demonstrate to people unfamiliar with cannabis that it’s production is like any other form of agriculture.

The school year may be two weeks old, but there's still a buzz at one college in southern Ontario over a program not available anywhere else in the country.

"I never thought five years ago, maybe even two years ago, that we'd be here in this classroom starting a course on commercial cannabis production," said professor Bill MacDonald.

MacDonald is the head of Niagara's College's new cannabis program. On the first day of school, he not only had students huddled around him, but also reporters and cameras.

The root of the excitement is that Canada is just over a month away from making pot legal for recreational use, and licensed cannabis producers across the country are hiring greenhouse staff as they ramp up operations.

Pranav Sood took his cannabis tech company to California to learn from one of the world’s largest legal marijuana markets, and now the Canadian is bringing his software back home to capitalize on the legal recreational market here.

Founded in Canada in 2014, Trellis Solutions Inc. is a cannabis software company that allows growers to track plants as they move through the supply chain, from cultivation to distribution. The software generates regulator-mandated compliance reports and analytics, such as plant-mortality rate and cost per gram, that help licensed producers optimize their operations.

Experts give insights on crucial developments that will make the cannabis industry globally competitive and incredibly lucrative

October 2018 will give rise to numerous opportunities that could position Canada as a world leader. When it comes to key trends, experts highlight the top six.

1. Focal point: Consolidation between craft industries and large-scale LPs

Bruce Linton, Founder and CEO for Canopy Growth Corporation.

In preparation for legal cannabis sales nationwide, Canadian Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould has approved a new roadside test to check for drug impairment.

The Drager DrugTest 5000 will be the first equipment for saliva screening to be used by Canadian law enforcement. It has the ability to test for THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana.

The Liberal government has promised $161 million in funding for drug-testing equipment and for police training over the course of the next five years in conjunction with a public awareness campaign about the risks of driving while high.

The new equipment will be made available to law enforcement across Canada but police forces will be able to decide on their own what equipment they use.

 Today we have identified four Canadian marijuana stocks that have acquired their license to sell cannabis within the past five months. Although there are more than 100 cannabis-related companies in Canada, there are significantly fewer companies with a license to sell, which gives companies like those we have weeded out today a distinct advantage when recreational use of marijuana is legalized in Canada on October 17, 2018.

Come mid-October 2018, both medical and recreational cannabis will be legal across Canada.

When first introduced, the Trudeau government made it clear that the intent of legalization is to stamp out the country’s entrenched black market — one-third of which is supplied by organized crime.

 March Networks®, a world leader in the delivery of video surveillance and video-based business intelligence solutions to the cannabis industry, is pleased to announce that one of Canada's largest cannabis producers has selected its complete cannabis video solution to provide security, loss prevention and operational insights for its retail dispensaries.

Canada’s budding marijuana industry is set for rapid job growth as recreational use will become legal in October.

A flourishing weed business has led more and more Canadians to search for opportunities in the sector. Job hunting related to pot has more than quadrupled compared to a year ago, The Globe and Mail reported last week. For instance, in the province of Saskatchewan, marijuana grow-ops, distribution centers, warehouses and retail stores will likely create about 700 new jobs by the time recreational use is officially legalized this fall, CBC reported.