The blossoming marijuana market is enticing alcohol heavyweights into the newly legal industry.

The world’s largest brewer, AB InBev, plans to invest $100 million (pdf) with partners in non-alcoholic drinks containing the active ingredients in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). AB InBev will team up with Tilray, the Canadian cannabis company operating in 12 countries and backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The beverage research will be conducted jointly with AB InBev subsidiary Labatt Breweries of Canada. Each firm is committing $50 million.

It took less than a week for the Trump administration to kill the considerable buzz created Jan. 1 when California’s broad marijuana legalization law took effect, creating the largest legal U.S. cannabis marketplace. Then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a policy shielding state-licensed medical marijuana operators from federal drug prosecutions. The move sent a chill through the nascent legal industry. But ultimately it had little impact because federal prosecutors around the country showed little interest in going after legal operators.

Sessions, a staunch marijuana opponent, later lost his job and the cannabis industry thrived in a hugely significant year for the legal pot movement , in the United States and beyond.

Here are some highlights:

Millions more square feet of plant production expected to come on line should ease supply shortages that have hobbled pot’s retail side, say those in industry.

That, and a flood of new federal sales licences for producers can’t come soon enough for retailers and their provincial government distributors who’ve felt the supply pinch. “By the end of the second quarter of next year, there’ll be a massive improvement in the amount of supply available,” said Mark Goliger, CEO of National Access Cannabis, which operates what’s currently the largest chain of cannabis stores in Canada.

“We won’t reach surplus, but the big suppliers will reach a mass capacity to supply the market.”

With the legalization of marijuana nationwide in October, Canada is already seeing a boom in cannabis-related employment. The number of cannabis jobs has shot up more than 200 percent, leading at least one company to import workers from out of the country to handle some of the jobs.

When doctors at the Solace Health Network of cannabis clinics prescribe their patients medical marijuana, one government-licensed producer of the drug might come quickly to mind.

The clinics’ parent company, after all, is Terrascend, which also owns a cannabis grower and seller.

A direct ownership link between doctor-staffed clinics and the manufacturer of their main treatment tool would be unheard of if it involved a pharmaceutical firm. But in the fast-evolving cannabis industry, Terrascend’s arrangement is far from unique — and quite legal.

The National Post has found close to a dozen companies across the country have combined pot-producing operations and marijuana-treatment clinics under the same corporate umbrella, in what seems to be a growing trend.

Nearly six months after cannabis was legalized Oct. 17 by the federal government, Ontario prepares for the launch of marijuana sales in brick-and-mortar stores April 1.

Calgary-based Spiritleaf is one franchisee that plans on opening 40 locations throughout Ontario. Right now, they have four physical stores operating in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“We’re trailblazing and this is brand new for Canada and Ontario to have a regulated product in the hands of private entrepreneurs,” said Spiritleaf’s CEO Darren Bondar.

“There’s going to be all kinds of bumps and challenges … but you can’t touch, smell or feel online. Cannabis concierges can provide product knowledge and everything you’d want in a retail experience.”

At the beginning of a new year, it’s good to develop a “short list” of stocks to follow in the year ahead. These needn’t be stocks you plan on buying. Instead, they can simply be stocks you commit to researching to decide whether you’re going to take a position.

This was a record-setting year for the marijuana industry, which put taboo views in the rearview mirror and transformed into a legitimate business model before our eyes.

To our north, Canada put an end to nine decades of recreational marijuana prohibition on Oct. 17. Although it's going to take a few years before production is able to meet domestic demand, this is an industry that's fully capable of $5 billion or more in added annual sales during the early part of the upcoming decade.

A new development in the legislative battle for legal marijuana has recently taken over domestic headlines.

HEXO Corp. (TSX:HEXO) applied to list its shares on the NYSE on Friday, delivering on a promise it made to investors earlier this year. The application is still awaiting approval by the NYSE, but the announcement marks a milestone for the pot stock which prides itself on executing its commitments in a timely fashion.