The Saskatchewan government is opening up the market for new retail cannabis stores.

Prior to the legalization of recreational cannabis in Oct. 2018, Saskatchewan used a lottery to determine who would be able to open shops. In April 2018, the province received a combined 1,500 applications for 51 permits in 32 communities and First Nations.

Now the Saskatchewan government is scrapping the lottery system and the cap on how may stores can be opened.

"We believe opening the market to more retailers will help meet customer demand while also helping discourage competition from unlicensed stores," said Minister Responsible for Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Gene Makowsky in a news release.

Revenue in Canada’s cannabis sector is forecasted to more than double next year despite slower-than-expected growth, according to a leading industry analyst.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Matt Bottomley said in a research note to client that Canada’s cannabis industry should expect $3.16 billion in revenue in 2020, up from the $1.46 billion forecast for 2019.

“As retail dispensaries continue to roll out and new product forms under ‘Cannabis 2.0’ are set to hit the shelves as early as mid-December, we believe the sector will see significant growth in 2020,” Bottomley said.

Sherry Lee Ann Kohoko opened her cosy Rastafarian-themed dispensary Madashk on April 20, the international day to celebrate marijuana.

It’s one of a handful of unlicensed cannabis stores on Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation territory in the Ottawa Valley.

Kohoko says customers drive from Ottawa and across the Valley to buy dried weed, homemade cannabis cookies, gummy candies, tinctures, oils, lotions and other products.

Now she hopes to add a second shop on her property — this one licensed by the provincial government.

That’s a possibility since Kohoko is one of 26 applicants given the right by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to apply for cannabis store licences on First Nation territories.

Much like its flagship product, the head of Crosby's Molasses says the company's foray into cannabis edibles will be "slow and steady." 

James Crosby is also president of EYG Consumables, a subsidiary of Crosby's with plans to incorporate water-soluble cannabis products like CBD and eventually THC into powdered drinks like hot chocolate, iced tea, and fruit juices.

EYG stands for "Eat Your Greens," a reference to cannabis plants.

Crosby is the fifth generation of his family to run the long-standing molasses company, which is one of the oldest businesses in Canada.

I'm not sure what's more frightening... the ghouls, goblins, and ghosts you might come across at some point today, or the aggregate return of the cannabis stocks since the end of March. My money might be on the latter, because at least the former winds up with tasty treats by the end of the evening.

In a change that will likely have an even greater effect on the market than legalization of recreational cannabis itself, new drinks and edibles are set to hit Canadian storeshelves in mid-December for people who want to try marijuana, without smoking it.

Tweed opened up it's new production facility on Tuesday, displaying new products including a product called Bakerstreet and ginger ale.

"There's really nothing like this in the world," said Canopy Growth Corporation CEO Mark Zukelin.

According to recent predictions by BDS Analytics, the CBD market will reach somewhere close to $20 billion in sales by the year 2024. That’s a 49 percent compound annual growth rate, a bit shocking for a substance that was almost entirely outlawed less than a decade ago. Here are three profitable trends in the CBD market that entrepreneurs should know about, especially those already building products and companies in the "CannaTech" space.

One year ago, there weren't many investments hotter than cannabis. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, had just launched recreationally legal weed sales two weeks prior (Oct. 17, 2018), and Wall Street's sales estimates for North American cannabis were steadily rising.

But oh, how times have changed.

Despite regulations for Cannabis 2.0 that went into effect two weeks ago, on Oct. 17, Canadian pot stocks have been pummeled for seven consecutive months. However, the bigger issue is that supply constraints in Canada are beginning to be felt at the individual company level.

The month of October has begun to stabilize for pot stocks to some extent. For anyone who watches the industry, they have seen that there has been quite a downtrend in the past few months. This is due to a variety of factors including uncertainty about the future of the industry, and general volatility that seems to be characteristic of pot stocks.