Like many Canadians, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried marijuana. He even smoked a doobie after becoming an MP. When he made that admission five years ago, he set tongues wagging. But his revelation was hardly scandalous. It actually made him relatable. For once, he came across as just another working stiff trying to unwind at home.

“We had a few good friends over for a dinner party, our kids were at their grandmother’s for the night, and one of our friends lit a joint and passed it around. I had a puff,” Trudeau told The Huffington Post Canada in 2013. He went on to explain that he’d smoked dope a handful of times, but it’s never really been his thing.

When Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister in 2015 with a promise to legalize marijuana a signficant plank of his campaign platform, it was already clear that individual municipalities across Canada would have the authority to decide how that would look on the local level.

While the feds would worry about the Criminal Code changes and the legal implications of how drivers might be tested for intoxication while the provinces would wrestle with wholesale supply and government-owned and/or private stores, municipalities would decide how easily or difficult pot would be available in their communities, through local bylaws and the awarding of business licences for retail and online sales, warehouse storage and industrial grow operations.

The MP for the Northwest Territories says he is all for Indigenous governments and organizations getting in on the profits to be made once cannabis becomes legal in Canada this summer.

Michael McLeod says he is well aware that the territorial government will control the sale and distribution of legal weed at least at the beginning.

But he adds over time – he would like to see Indigenous governments and entrepreneurs get in on the action.

“I totally applaud Indigenous governments that are looking at this as a business opportunity because that is what this is. I am anticipating that down the road we will have opportunity to do that.”

Paul Newman says mainland corporations will benefit over locals in N.L.'s cannabis industry.

One disgruntled businessman in Clarenville is upset his application to be a licensed cannabis retailer was denied — and says the province is handing a lucrative industry to mainland corporations. 

"Basically Newfoundlanders got screwed here. This went, all this billion-dollar industry is going to go outside of Newfoundland now," says Newfoundland Puffin Co. owner Paul Newman.

"And it should have been kept here in the province."

Newman said he opened his head shop in April in hopes of becoming a licensed legal cannabis retailer when recreational marijuana is legalized in Canada this summer.

Smiths Falls’ Canopy Growth Corp. has opened its shares to interested American investors by kicking off its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.

The medical marijuana company, which has been trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange since July 2016, now has its shares available on the American stock exchange under the symbol “CGC,” which differs from its well-known Canadian ticker symbol “WEED.”

Canopy’s shares opened at $30.85 US on the NYSE, before falling 2.6 per cent in early day trading to sit at around $29.32 US.

On the TSX in Canada, the firm’s shares opened at $38.40 before falling 1.16 per cent to trade around $38.31 in early trading.

The pool of bearish wagers on a pot bust in increasing.

The total value of short positions in global marijuana-related stocks has climbed to a record approaching $2.1-billion, according to Sam Pierson, an analyst at IHS Markit in Boston. Short sellers have increased their positions amid concern that the sector is overvalued, and it’s becoming easier to find shares available to borrow for companies with a large market capitalization, he said.

“There’s still a concern about valuations,” Pierson said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “By any valuation metric, whether they even have positive earnings or what those earnings are, they’re certainly stretched compared to what you would traditionally see.”

This pot stock's focus on product innovation and extracts may give it an edge over its competition.

Big changes are afoot in the legal marijuana industry. Two weeks from today, an expected favorable vote from Canada's Senate is expected to move the Cannabis Act one step closer to being signed into law. By sometime next month, Canada could become the first developed country in the world to legalize adult-use marijuana.

Cannabis is now being pedalled in Vancouver.

But don’t expect to see cyclists wearing brightly coloured green uniforms or backpacks to identify themselves. Because of security concerns, the cyclists who deliver cannabis for Spruce Delivery on bicycles deliberately don’t stand out.

If you order from Spruce Delivery, you’ll get someone who resembles a regular bike courier.

Spruce started delivering pot to people two and a half weeks ago, said Frank Le, one of four owners of the new company.

Simply put, Big Pharma has been a long time opponent of legalizing medical marijuana as it threatens to ruin its business and drop the market cap for pharmaceutical drug companies.

Even though medical cannabis has been legalized in more than half of the US states, all of Canada and in Mexico, prices of drugs that could be replaced by cannabis are still on the rise.

Worse yet, prices of drugs that are made from the cannabis flower are being artificially inflated in places where medical marijuana is legal, but most recently in Germany of all places.

This is due to the fact that the Big Pharma has so far only competed with the black market when it comes to marijuana, but now all of that is starting to change.

With all of the hype surrounding Canopy Growth Corp.’s (TSX:WEED) (NYSE:CGC) move to the New York Stock Exchange, marijuana stock investors would do well to look at smaller players finding a backdoor into the cannabis stock market. Here are two future pot stocks that engineered reverse takeovers:

MedMen Inc.