Cannabis company Hexo Corp. says its chief financial officer has resigned, effective today, after taking on the role in May.

Hexo CFO Michael Monahan says in a release that he has decided to resign because the job requires him to spend the majority of his time in Gatineau, Que., and in Ottawa, which is not possible “given my family's needs.”

He adds in a statement that he has had a “very rewarding time” at Hexo and will assist the company as a consultant to ensure a smooth transition. Hexo's CEO announced that its vice-president of strategic finance, Stephen Burwash, has accepted the role of CFO.

What happened

Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB) saw its stock fall 20.7% in the month of September, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The world's leading producer of cannabis sold off after a tough month for pot stocks and unprofitable growth stocks in general. In addition, Aurora released a fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report that didn't quite match the market's lofty expectations.

Some independent retail cannabis store players are banding together to combat what they see as the growing encroachment of big business in Saskatchewan's legal pot industry.

Nearly a year after the first of the province's retail cannabis stores opened, at least 25 out of 36 operating stores — more than two-thirds — are owned by a publicly traded company or chain.

In Saskatoon and Regina, five out of 11 operating stores are either owned by Canopy Growth Corporation or Westleaf Cannabis, the parent companies of Tweed and Prairie Records, respectively. Another publicly traded company, Fire and Flower, owns six stores elsewhere in the province. 

Nearly one year since the legalization of cannabis in Canada, local producer WeedMD is harvesting one of Southwestern Ontario’s first outdoor crops.

The Strathroy-based producer and distributor began harvesting more than 11 hectares of cannabis. About 35 strains, including Ultra Sour, Pedro Sweet, and Ghost Train Haze, have being cultivated outside.

“This is one of the largest legal cannabis cultivations in the world,” Keith Merker, WeedMD’s chief executive, said in a speech at Thursday’s harvest event. “We kept growing, and we kept learning.”

More than 21,000 plants will be harvested by Oct. 19. While the wet spring delayed planting by three weeks to mid-June, WeedMD’s chief cannabis officer Derek Pedro said it’s been a successful first growing year.

Square Inc. has become one of the first U.S. payments platforms doing business with CBD providers, just as the industry is booming.

The company this week started allowing U.S. businesses to sell cannabidiol products on its platform while keeping track of payment and inventory management. CBD derived from hemp was legalized last year, while the intoxicating THC compound remains illegal at the federal level.

“We saw this as an opportunity to make our tools available to sellers” in the industry, Square said in a statement.

Wall Street’s love of cannabis appears to be going up in smoke as vaping-related ailments and missed revenue projections are prompting short sellers to raise their bets against the industry, fund managers and analysts said on Wednesday.

Short interest in cannabis stocks, which reflects bets that prices will fall, has risen 55% for the year to date, handing short-focused investors more than $2 billion in profits over the period, according to data released by research firm S3 Partners on Monday.

Canopy Growth Corp. is acquiring a majority stake in BioSteel Sports Nutrition Inc., as the pot giant aims to quench the thirst of prospective consumers with a line of cannabis-infused sports drinks.

The deal, which sees Canopy acquiring a 72 per cent stake in the Toronto-based sports drink maker, represents the company's bet that aside from being a major cannabis producer, it can also be a big player in the US$50-billion global sports nutrition market. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

When you compare cannabis legalization in Canada to how some American states are going about it, you’ll realize that the quality and price of Canadian cannabis is nowhere near the same level. People often say “look at what Colorado and Washington are doing”, but Canada took an entirely different path.

Here’s why Canada’s legalization of cannabis was doomed to be a failure.

A business website, canadianbusiness.com, came out with their list of Canada’s Top 50 New Growth Companies for 2019. The companies on the list represent the most promising companies Canada has to offer.

From cannabis-infused sparkling water that contains only five calories to pot beer that doesn’t taste disgusting (no seriously, the taste has been compared to dish soap and even urine), these Canadian companies are thinking outside of the box when it comes to drinkable weed.

Sweet Reason: Hemp CBD-infused sparkling water

There’s no reason why obsessions can’t be healthy. If pitched to the right audience, obsessions can lead to a sweet million-dollar deal—just ask Hilary McCain.