Organigram Holdings (NASDAQOTH:OGRMF) and Aphria (NYSE:APHA) recently reported quarterly results that did not meet expectations.

Both stocks fell after analysts revised their forward outlook downward, but some intrepid investors are convinced they can bounce back once Health Canada hammers out a few kinks in the cannabis supply chain. Which marijuana stock has a better chance to provide shareholders with market-beating gains over the long run? Let's find out.

Don't blink, because if you do, you might miss big news in the rapidly evolving marijuana industry. Since the beginning of 2018, it's been something of an escalation war between pot stocks in North America following the legalization of recreational weed in Canada and the ongoing state-level legalization of cannabis in the United States.

Debt simply hasn't been a major issue for many companies in the marijuana industry. There's a simple reason for that: Banks wouldn't loan them any money. 

But it's becoming easier for marijuana businesses to obtain loans. And some companies with core businesses outside of the cannabis industry have taken on debt to make acquisitions to jump on board the marijuana bandwagon.

Which marijuana stocks have the most debt? And should investors be worried about any of them?

The biggest debtors

The five companies that operate in the marijuana industry with the highest total long-term debt levels right now are:

This week, Aphria (TSX:APHA)(NYSE:APHA) reported its earnings and analysts were more than shocked at the results.

It was a massive letdown for shareholders who had high hopes for the cannabis company. Aphria remains in third place among Canadian marijuana companies, but now some are worrying that it won’t keep that spot for long.

Then we have Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB). This company has remained in the second spot for quite some time and has made some major announcements lately that have investors excited.

Shareholders of Organigram Holdings (NASDAQOTH:OGRMF) and CannTrust Holdings (NYSE:CTST)have to be pretty happy with how the stocks are performing so far in 2019. Organigram is up more than 80% year to date while CannTrust stock has jumped nearly 50%.

The two Canadian marijuana producers share similar growth opportunities. But which of these two stocks is the better pick for investors? Here's how Organigram and CannTrust stack up against each other.

Lately, Stephen Verbeek's life is one of chaos, sawdust, and weed.

Verbeek is the CEO of Hello Cannabis, which is acting as a consultant for the opening of a legal storefront dispensary at 51 Cootes Drive in Dundas alongside owner Santino Coppolino. It's right next door to Verbeek's medicinal marijuana business of the same name.

There were hopes the shop would be open by this Saturday, but standing in the shell of the building amid the sound of saw blades slicing, Verbeek says that was impossible. Counters aren't yet installed, wires are hanging from the ceiling, and the air inside the building still smells like fresh cut wood.

"I had a full head of hair when we started," he said with a smile.

Ancillary industries and sectors are primed to benefit from cannabis’ rise to prominence. Some examples include banking, packaging solutions, and real estate. One industry that is often overlooked but could play a huge role in the cannabis industry is energy. The U.S. cannabis industry is currently eating up more than 1% of all electricity each year. Keep in mind that it’s not even legal at the federal level, so you can imagine how much electricity the industry would be using and what demand would be placed on electric grids, if marijuana were legalized across the country. The need to reduce greenhouse emissions created by the weed industry, as well as lower electric load and expenditures, makes the energy sector a clear beneficiary of a budding cannabis industry.

The month of April has seen its fair share of ups and downs throughout the stock market, not just pertaining to cannabis. Despite only being halfway through the month, it seems as though the market is finding some sense of stability. Much of the early days of cannabis were plagued by large amounts of volatility due to the infancy of the industry, but some of this has slowed down as the market has been given time to mature. Many companies do remain quite volatile, but there are some choices that could be a solid alternative to the high fluctuations we have seen in the past few weeks.

The marijuana industry has come an incredibly long way in relatively short amount of time. What had been considered a taboo topic is no longer. Following the passage of the Cannabis Act in Canada last year, our neighbor to the north became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. We also witnessed the highest approval for legalizing cannabis in the U.S., according to Gallup, in its nearly 50 years of polling.

This transformation all translates into one thing: big money for opportunistic marijuana stocks.

When it comes to the fastest-growing industries on the planet, it's supposed to be marijuana -- and everything else. The global cannabis industry is expected to see sales expand by 38% in 2019, according to a report released earlier this year by the duo of Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics, then hit between $50 billion and $75 billion in annual sales by the end of the next decade, up from $12.2 billion in 2018. This type of growth story usually only comes around once or twice per generation.

Note that I said "supposed" to be the fastest-growing industry on the planet. You certainly wouldn't know it right now by looking at the Canadian marijuana market.