The summer has been a rough time for Canadian cannabis stocks and Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ.TO) (HMLSF) has fallen approx. 25% from its late June highs.

This weakness has taken place on light volume and we have been closely monitoring this trend. Although the decline has been painful, it does not come as a surprise. During the last three years, we have seen the cannabis sector pullback during the summer months and this year has been no different.

We expect the selloff to end very soon and investors need to be monitoring the cannabis sector. Today, we have issued an update on three Canadian licensed producers that are worth highlighting.

Maricann Group Inc. (CSE:MARI; FWB:75M; OTCQB:MRRCF)is excited to announce the official launch of MariPlant, the Company’s European nutraceutical line of business. MariPlant products will be available for sale in Germany through www.mariplant.de beginning on August 20, 2018, with strategic expansion planned throughout the European Union.

In Spruce Grove, Alta., people camped out by city hall, waiting for the doors to open so they could apply to open a cannabis store.

In other places in the province, retailers are signing leases with rents that are as much as twice the usual rate, in the hope they will eventually win the right to sell marijuana in those locations.

In Ontario, veteran retailer Michael Serruya says he has identified 27 future locations for cannabis shops – even though the province’s new government hasn’t officially said whether it will allow a single privately owned store to sell recreational marijuana.

VICTORIA, Aug. 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Alternabis Farms Ltd. ("Alternabis" or the "Company") is pleased to announce construction is advancing at their new state-of-the-art cannabis production facility on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

The family-owned and operated company applied to become a licensed producer of medical cannabis under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) in 2014. The facility is located on a 100-acre farm that is agriculturally zoned and approved for cannabis cultivation.

"Alternabis is a passionate family business with the goal of producing premium and innovative cannabis at an affordable price," said Max Walker, Director of Marketing & Sales.

The first device set to be approved by the federal government for roadside saliva tests to determine marijuana impairment isn’t suited for cold weather, and has been found to give “fairly large proportions of false-positive or false-negative results.”

Last month Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould published a notice of intention to approve the Dräger DrugTest 5000, and list it as “approved drug screening equipment” for law enforcement to use at the roadside to test for both THC and cocaine. 

However, CTV News has found concerns about the efficacy and efficiency of the device.

CSTAR Cannabis Inc. ("CSTAR Cannabis") is pleased to announce that its application to become a Licensed Producer ("LP") under Health Canada's Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR") has progressed to the 'Active Review' Stage. This progress places CSTAR Cannabis in the final stage of the ACMPR application process, preceding the issuance of a License to Produce. Meanwhile, CSTAR Cannabis continues to work closely with Health Canada to complete its high technology production facility, designed to cultivate craft cannabis products and develop unique proprietary genetics.   

Investors have compiled a laundry list of reasons to be cautious about cryptocurrency from its volatility to its lack of regulation. A stigma that crypto is the currency of criminals has lingered.

A new study from the US Drug Enforcement Agency may shift some perspectives.

Illegal activity was once behind 90% of crypto transactions, but that number has shrunk to around 10%, according to a Bloomberg report.

So, who’s behind the majority of cryptocurrency transactions? Bitcoin speculators.

For horticulture, propagation using tissue culture is nothing new. In fact, the technique has been used in crops like lettuce, hops, mint, potato stock, orchids, ornamental plants and berries.

“Tissue culture is the basis for just about every other big ag company,” says Dr. Jon Vaught, CEO and co-founder of Front Range Biosciences (FRB), an agricultural biotech company based in Lafayette, Colorado that specializes in tissue culture propagation of high value crops such as cannabis through its Clean Stock program. 

While much of the country is focused on cannabis as it relates to consumers — the countdown to legal weed on Oct. 17, protocols for marijuana retailers, penalties for impaired drivers, and so on — municipalities along Ontario’s south coast are busily trying to manage the growth of a nascent industry.

Here, the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes and the arrival of industrial-scale production have sprouted concerns that will only thicken in years ahead. After all, the time remaining before the recreational marijuana market opens up in Canada is about the same as the life cycle of a cannabis plant.

There’s Yelp for restaurants and TripAdvisor for hotels. So it was only a matter of time before cannabis got its own user-generated database of reviews. 

Just in time for legalization this fall, Lift & Co., “Canada’s medical marijuana marketplace and community,” is launching Cannabis Concierge, an online platform to help consumers find strains and products that are right for them. 

Part of that means tapping into “the world’s largest review platform of federally legal cannabis products” – namely, the Toronto-based cannabis-tech company’s database of more than 1,000 cannabis strains and products and more than 60,000 user reviews.