A chain of marijuana shops across Saskatchewan has been purchased by one of Canada's largest pot companies.

On Thursday, Fire & Flower announced it is buying Prairie Sky Cannabis — owner of the Jimmy's Cannabis Shop chain of retail stores — for $13 million. The deal includes the company's four locations in Battleford, Estevan, Martensville and Moosomin.

"We're excited to make this move in Saskatchewan," said Nathan Mison, vice-president of government and stakeholder relations for Fire & Flower.

"We look forward to opportunities to continue to make moves to show the government our commitment to the province."

As competition in the industry continues to rise, there’s a very real risk that Aurora Cannabis Inc  (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB) will not be one of the top pot stocks anymore. Long seen as the main rival of Canopy Growth Corp (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC), Aurora is doing very little to justify that position.

With U.S. cannabis companies starting to show significant sales growth south of the border and Canopy Growth already making moves to expand there as well, Aurora could see tougher times ahead.

 Aurora Cannabis is one of only two major Canadian cannabis companies with a market value of more than $1.5 billion that has yet to ink a partnership or investment deal with a major U.S. company, but that’s because a rich American advised executives not to do it.

Israel-based medical cannabis company InterCureLtd., chaired by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, announced in a Wednesday filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange a cannabis growing agreement with an unnamed Canadian company.

Under the agreement, the two will form a new company that will grow medical cannabis in an indoor facility in Canada.

InterCure subsidiary Canndoc will own 51% of the new company and contribute its cannabis growing experience, while the Canadian company will hold 49% and invest the resources needed to set up the facility and distribute the output.

In an interview with Calcalist, Canndoc CEO Roei Zerahia said the agreement will enable the company to quickly achieve sales in the Canadian market, without relying on export from Israel.

As recently as 10 years ago, the idea of recreational marijuana being legalized would have been somewhat laughable. In the U.S. in 2009, just 44% of survey-takers favored the idea of a broad-based legalization, according Gallup, and not a single country in the world had passed a law allowing the consumption of recreational cannabis. 

But what a difference a decade makes.

Today we have identified four Canadian cannabis stocks performing well above industry benchmarks Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers (HMJR) and ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) in terms of year-to-date returns.

While it has been a good year so far for cannabis companies, year-to-date, our four stocks have significantly outperformed these cannabis ETF benchmarks, increasing an average of 205.75%, compared to the average benchmark, which has increased 54.5%. In terms of average 2020E consensus multiples, our picks trade at 1.88x sales and 8.5x EBITDA, a substantial discount to peers, which trade at 7.9x sales and 29.9x EBITDA (Canadian industry mean).

In case you haven't noticed, big things are happening in the marijuana industry. Long considered a taboo industry that wasn't worth the time of day of lawmakers or investors, few if any industries have grown faster, or delivered greater returns for investors over the last three years, than legal marijuana.

Cannabis stocks flattened out on Wednesday after steep declines on Tuesday. It's been a rocky week so far for cannabis stocks across broader North American markets. 

The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks the top cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, was flat at 297.7 points on Wednesday. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF was up 0.4% at C$21.38.

Curaleaf Holdings Inc., the most valuable U.S. marijuana company, is making a big bet on cannabis oil.

The Massachusetts-based company is buying the regulated cannabis business of Cura Partners Inc., a maker of oil for vape pens, in a stock deal valued at about $1.27 billion (US$950 million). That makes it the largest acquisition so far between U.S. cannabis companies. Cura, based in Portland, Oregon, sells its Select brand marijuana products in more than 900 dispensaries, including in California, which is home to the world’s largest legal weed market. It had revenue of about US$117 million last year.

Acquiring Select gives Curaleaf a popular West Coast brand it can sell at its dispensaries around the U.S., according Boris Jordan, the company’s chairman.

2019 is shaping up to be the most profitable year yet for CBD – the medicinal compound derived from marijuana. And there's still time to make a huge profit on what's quickly becoming a billion-dollar industry.

The Hemp Business Journal reports that the CBD industry, worth only $170 million in 2017, could be worth $1.1 billion by the end of next year.

And that figure could balloon to even greater heights in just the next three years. According to the Brightfield Group, the CBD industry could be worth as much as $22 billion by 2022.

That 12,000% growth potential is simply unheard of. That's why we've been telling our readers all about CBD.