Tweed Inc. (Tweed or the Company), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX: WEED) today announced that it has completed an intensive process of sourcing a diverse genetic seed bank and legally importing it into Canada. Tweed will begin selling cannabis seeds to authorized home growers under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations in early March.

An investment company is making plans to launch what could be the first exchange-traded fund to profit on marijuana.

The Emerging AgroSphere ETF would give investors an opportunity to buy a group of companies making prescription drugs using cannabis extracts, selling hemp derivatives and other related stocks, fund backer ETF Managers Group LLC said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

More than two dozen U.S. states have legalized some form of marijuana for medical or recreational use, though the drug remains illegal at the federal level.

In hemp fields across Canada, farmers spend months planting, watering and weeding the hemp. But when harvest time comes, part of the plant is tossed aside, even though it’s quite valuable.

It’s called cannabidiol, better known as CBD, and it’s contained in the flowering parts and leaves of the hemp plant.

“Just the leaves themselves, we’re not allowed to harvest,” said Keith Jones, the general manager of Rowland Farms.

“We have to just spread them back on the ground.”

Jones manages the largest hemp farm in the world, located in Taber, Alta. He says they’re forced to waste CBD-rich parts of the plant.

“Unfortunately, Health Canada’s regulation only allows us to harvest the seed and the stalk,” he said.

Marijuana workers generally aren’t worried about the safety of their jobs selling joints, cultivating plants and testing edibles, according to a new study from Colorado researchers.

However, nearly a quarter (23 percent) of those working at Colorado’s cannabis companies never receive health and safety training and education varies widely for those that do, according to the “Work and Well-Being in the Colorado Cannabis Industry” report.

The report recommends cannabis businesses develop, implement and repeatedly evaluate formal health and safety training programs for all industry workers.

Marijuana companies have a marketing problem. Whether they sell bespoke edibles, laboriously refined concentrates or weed with a celebrity’s name on the box, they are all selling products that deliver THC. When most customers can’t tell the difference between one product and the next, it’s difficult for companies to develop brand loyalty. 

In most consumer industries, this is a solvable problem: Brands can spend lots of money promoting their product. Yet this approach isn’t an option for cannabis companies, which don’t have marketing budgets anywhere near that of a giant multinational company. In addition, most legal states restrict where and how marijuana companies can advertise.

In just a few months, Parachute will be home to Colorado’s first drive-through marijuana shop. Tumbleweed, owned by Green Cross Colorado LLC, has won approval for drive-up sales out of a former carwash, across the street from Tumbleweed’s primary location. 

While the decision to repeal Parachute’s ban on marijuana establishments in June 2015 stirred months of controversy, the revenue pot sales has generated is critical to the town. 

At a Rifle Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon in February, Parachute Mayor Roy McClung said that personal feelings aside, without legalized recreational marijuana, the town’s economy would have been in serious trouble. 

Hundreds of couples lined up for the Cannabis Wedding Expo in Littleton for its second year Sunday.

Although most people probably have not heard of a cannabis wedding, that's not so for 1,000 people who are cannabis curious or already connoisseurs. At the Cannabis Wedding Expo, vendors work to marry marijuana with holy matrimony.

The sold-out event was held at the Falls Event Center and brought together more than 70 cannabis-friendly companies with hundreds of couples who want to incorporate weed into their weddings.

Event organizers said they created the event because they were turned away from other traditional wedding expos for trying to incorporate cannabis.

The Canadian cannabis industry has continued to be a bright spot for cannabis investors and 2017 has already provided investors with strong investment returns.

This sub-sector of the cannabis industry has been on fire since July 2016 with the increased interest fueled by the anticipation that Canada will become the first G-7 nation to legalize recreational cannabis.

All Eyes on Legislation this Spring

One of the highly anticipated events of 2017 is the tabling of legislation as it relates to a legal recreational cannabis program. This development is expected to take place in the spring.

With all the excitement in the recreational marijuana space, it is hard for growth oriented investors to ignore this new market. Society has become more liberal with the idea of legalizing marijuana. Two polls from April 2015, found that the majority of Americans, 53%, were in support of this idea and it can be seen from the map below how the States have slowly began this process. Marijuana stocks in Canada and the USA have been rising since their respective elections.

One of New Mexico's top-grossing medical cannabis producers, The Verdes Foundation, implemented Wednesday a new system to help cut energy use at both of its locations.