As the one-year anniversary of the legalization of recreational cannabis approaches, an industry expert says the Prairie provinces are outpacing larger players Ontario and Quebec in the Canadian market with a smoother rollout and stronger sales.

"Manitoba and Saskatchewan are making Ontario and Quebec look very bad," said Chris Damas, editor of BCMI Cannabis Report, a newsletter for cannabis investors in Canada and the U.S.

In the two largest provinces, Damas said poor regulatory frameworks and slow-to-open stores meant the industry underperformed in its first year. He praised the framework in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan for allowing private retailers to sell product and opening the door to e-commerce.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is hoping for more details on the federal government’s plan to ensure edible cannabis products will not be produced or packaged in a way that would entice children and teens.

Health Canada released regulations in July that said edibles must not be “reasonably considered to be appealing to a young person,” but did not specify which colours, flavours or forms will be permitted.

Sales of edible cannabis products are to start in December, and Pallister says he would like specifics.

“The first concern we have is protection of our people. And protection … of our children is uppermost in all of our minds,” he said Friday.

“The question of whether the federal government has got that covered or not is a matter of debate.”

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Kieley Beaudry is relatively new to micro-cannabis, but so is the rest of Alberta.

Beaudry is the founder of Parkland Flower Inc., a micro-cultivation facility currently under construction in Parkland County west of Edmonton. She is also the president of the fledgling Alberta Cannabis Micro License Association (ACMLA).

After incorporating last November, Parkland Flower’s wholesaling licence is expected to be approved by Health Canada this month. The company also has plans to apply for a processing licence down the line.

With that, and licences for the ACMLA coming in, it’s a busy time for Beaudry on the eve of the second wave of legalization.

About a year ago, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB) was trading as high as $12.52 a share, a sobering reminder for investors of how far the stock has fallen since then. Today, Aurora's stock is less than one-third of that price.

Canadian cannabis business owners say they’re being punished by big banks backing away from bud.

Thomas H. Clarke was one of the first Canadians to legally sell marijuana, but has had to resort to becoming a cash-only business this week after the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) closed his account.

“They ditched me,” Clarke said in a phone interview.

He opened an account with the bank before receiving his licence to run, THC Distribution, calling it a cannabis accessories wholesale shop.

A joint venture between B.C. cannabis company Tilray Inc. and the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev plans to have CBD-infused drinks on the Canadian market as early as December, but says it needs more time to research beverages containing THC.

Fluent Beverage Company's chief executive Jorn Socquet said that through the two companies' previously-announced research partnership, it has determined how to formulate beverages containing cannabidiol, the non-intoxicating compound also known as CBD, in a way that keeps the active ingredients stable and potent over the lifecycle of the product.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, the cannabis compound which produces a high and is known as THC, has proven much more unstable, he added.

It hasn't taken too long for the legal marijuana industry to transform itself into a big-money business. There's no doubt that tens of billions of dollars' worth of illicit pot sales are ongoing behind the scenes globally, but the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada last year, along with 33 U.S. states, to some varied degree, led to $10.9 billion in legal weed sales worldwide in 2018. By the end of the upcoming decade, we could be talking about $50 billion, $100 billion, or even $200 billion in annual worldwide legal sales.

The legalization of cannabis in Canada was supposed to be a catalyst — the most powerful one yet, investors and analysts alike thought — that would launch companies in the young but potent industry to new heights. Instead, nearly one year later, it has been a nightmare.

Since recreational cannabis became legal on Oct. 17, 2018, the shares of what were then the 10 largest Canadian cannabis producers by market capitalization have been bludgeoned, yielding an average negative return of more than 57 per cent for investors.