Strainprint, the leader in cannabis data and analytics, is pleased to announce that VIVO Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: VIVO) is the latest top tier Canadian licensed producer to subscribe to Strainprint Analytics. VIVO is a leading, vertically-integrated, cannabis business with a collection of premium brands targeting unique consumer segments and needs across both medical and recreational channels, both in Canada and other international markets.

VIVO will leverage this strategic subscription to coincide with the launch of their Beacon Medical brand, a standardized pharma-grade cannabis that's clean, consistent and repeatable — qualities sought by physicians and patients, which stands for setting patients on the clearest path to treatment.

Indiva, a licensed medical marijuana grower, has secured leases for storefronts in London and Ottawa, while negotiations are underway in Toronto, the company said Monday.

“It means we’ll have a direct relationship with the consumers,” chief operating officer Koby Smutylo said of the company’s plan to become a retailer.

Indiva’s dispensaries will carry its products, products from other licensed producers and a range of cannabis accessories.

The London dispensary will open at 875 Wellington Rd., just south of Southdale Road. The 1,700-square-foot space is sandwiched between a Firehouse Subs and a Fedex office.

With the Canadian recreational marijuana market about to launch, investors are wondering which cannabis companies are best positioned to succeed.

Let’s take a look at Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) to see if deserves to be the top cannabis stock for your portfolio today.

In a little more than three weeks, Canada is set to make history by becoming the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. This big step, which will occur on Oct. 17, should result in billions of dollars flowing into the legal Canadian weed industry, and perhaps make investors in marijuana stocks a pretty (green) penny.

Near the hometown of the late Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar, a growing number of Canadians are seeking their fortunes in the international drug trade.

Today, however, they're doing it legally.  

At least seven licensed Canadian cannabis producers have set up shop in Colombia, investing more than $100 million in the conflict-hit country that has become a new frontier in the legal marijuana business, according to a review of company filings. "We understand the pain of the war on drugs. That war was here," said Bibiana Rojas, managing director of Spectrum Cannabis Colombia, a subsidiary of Canopy Growth, one of Canada's largest marijuana firms.

In less than a month, Canada will become only the second country in the world and the first G-7 nation to bring marijuana prohibition to an end, legalizing cannabis for recreational use.

The move comes at a time when major corporations such as Constellation Brands are deepening investments in the space, cannabis stocks are seeing major volatility, and talk of a bubble is brewing.

Last week’s wild ride for pot stocks, which saw shares of B.C.-based marijuana company Tilray Inc. fly above US$250 apiece at one point, before closing Friday at US$123, underlined that it is no longer just Canadian retail investors seeking exposure to the cannabis sector.

Lately, those shares of Canadian-based cannabis producers are increasingly finding a home in the portfolios of three other kinds of investors: American, institutional and unwitting, possibly.

“In meteoric fashion, some of the now-large cannabis companies have graduated from the (TSX Venture Exchange) to the (Toronto Stock Exchange), and in some cases the S&P/TSX Composite Index,” said the recently released 2018 proxy season review from Kingsdale Advisors.

Coca-Cola is the latest major corporation to make a move into the cannabis industry. Expect more in the coming years.

You've probably seen the incredible gains racked up by some of the largest Canadian marijuana stocks in recent weeks. The market caps of several of these stocks are now so great that even investors with the most optimistic views about the prospects for the cannabis industry are leery of buying.

But I think that there still are quite a few good picks that can reward investors over the long run from the cannabis boom without paying through the nose. You just need to focus on companies on which the spotlights haven't burned so brightly.

Two months ago, Tilray Inc. was a little-known Canadian marijuana producer working to build its international footprint from the sleepy British Columbia town of Nanaimo.  Today, Tilray has become the king of pot. The stock has soared more than 10-fold since its initial public offering in July, dethroning Canopy Growth Corp. as the world’s largest marijuana company. It sports a market value of about $15 billion (U.S.), even after a pullback Thursday.