A new report offers Agricultural Land Reserve parcels as a welcome alternative to marijuana production on in-demand industrial land.

Commercial real estate in Vancouver will see unprecedented demand with the legalization of recreational marijuana this summer, presenting a lucrative opportunity for Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) owners and a money-savvy alternative for producers.  

A new Colliers International report, Cannabis & ALR - Keep the Land, states recreational cannabis sales in Canada are expected to fetch up to $8.7 million in their first year and will continue to drive up demand for Vancouver industrial land. 

While marijuana stocks may be considered a contentious sector to invest in to some investors, this is a sector that could be quite profitable for long-term investors. If recreational cannabis is soon legalized, many marijuana companies are positioned to potentially experience explosive earnings growth in the years ahead.

Three marijuana stocks are now included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, and that number may continue to grow.

Given the growing presence and leadership of these stocks, I recently spoke with Vahan Ajamian, an analyst who currently covers eight marijuana equities at Beacon Securities Ltd. Here are excerpts from our conversation, with an expanded version available online at tgam.ca/inside the market.

A Kamloops lawyer has expressed alarm following Monday's pot shop bust on Hillside Drive.

The Canna Clinic was shut down and two employees arrested after RCMP said the shop had been operating illegally within the City of Kamloops.

"I'm quite alarmed. So, when you read the news release from the RCMP, they're basically justifying this, saying, 'Well, these guys are blatantly breaking the law because they are failing to follow the Kamloops bylaw,'" says Shawn Buckley, principal lawyer with Buckley and Company. "Well, Kamloops will not issue a business license. So, the city itself is creating the illegal behaviour."

INVICTUS MD STRATEGIES CORP. ("Invictus" or the "Company") (TSXV: GENE; OTC: IVITF; FRA: 8IS1) is pleased to announce that the Acreage Pharms Ltd ("Acreage Pharms") 33,000 square foot, purpose built Phase 2 production facility is complete.  Land clearing and site preparation for its 80,000 square foot Phase 3 expansion project has commenced giving the licensed producer a total of 120,000 square feet of growing space by the end of 2018. Acreage Pharms is also working on plans to increase total capacity to 360,000 square feet in 2019. Invictus is fully funded for the Phase 3 expansion.

Acreage Pharms Phase 1 & Phase 2 (CNW Group/Invictus MD Strategies)

There's another indication that marijuana legalization is going to feel like Prohibition 2.0 for some in B.C.'s thriving cannabis sector.

That's because the NDP government has revealed that seeds will be included in the list of products being monitored in the federal cannabis tracking system.

"Additionally, the Liquor Distribution Branch will maintain its own product listing system for any products, including seeds, that it acquires from licensed producers and distributes to public stores, private retail stores, or sells through the online sales system."

The revelation came in response to questions posed to the province by Deepak Anand. He's vice president of business development and government relations with a consulting firm called Cannabis Compliance Inc.

Looking for alternative ways to play speculative sectors such as the Canadian (soon to be legalized) cannabis space is something many investors have begun to explore. Whether it’s the potential to invest in cannabis suppliers that may see their volumes grow alongside the cannabis plants they supply to distribution companies or ways of playing government spending in this space, investors will certainly look to exploit every possible avenue as more details about how this commodity will be legalized emerge. I have stated before that valuations within the cannabis production space currently make no sense to me, so…

BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS) is pleased to announce that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Bliss Co Holdings Ltd. ("BlissCo"), has received its order of cuttings at its facility in Langley. BlissCo received the cuttings on May 2, 2018, from 7ACRES which is a Licensed Producer and wholly owned subsidiary of The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. (TSX.V: FIRE).

Competition among cannabis growers in Canada has reached epic proportions, with each producer apparently viewing legalization as a "green rush" of sorts, in which the producer who grows the most pot wins.

Earlier last month, Canadian cannabis firm Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB) announced its intention to build a new production facility which would increase its overall production of marijuana by 430,000 kgs per year. The facility, which the company has dubbed "Aurora Sun" is expected to encompass a 21-acre facility, with approximately 50% more capacity than its current flagship production facility codenamed "Aurora Sky situated at the Edmonton airport.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) released a report Tuesday titled, Cannabis: Almost Showtime, which provides a very positive outlook on the pending legal cannabis industry in Canada.

However, some of the information presented in the report might make the booze industry a little wary.

The CIBC analysts predict that the Canadian cannabis industry will eclipse the alcohol industry with an expected $6.5 billion in legal rec sales by 2020. Canadians spent $5.1 billion on spirits and $7 billion on wine in 2017. Another $16 billion was spent on tobacco. 

The designs for 12 Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) cannabis shops were released on Monday by the organization’s President and CEO, Bret Mitchell.

Eleven of the cannabis shops will be located within NSLC locations, which will undergo $500,000 renovations to accommodate the shops-within-a-shop. One vacant store in Halifax will reopen as the sole cannabis-only store in the province.

Based on the renderings, the shops are well-lit with white walls featuring a few punches of bright colours. There will be a wall of weed boxes behind the cash registers that will display the products.

“We have what I consider a modern, bright, really merchandise-intense full-service environment which we are going to roll in July,” said Mitchell.