Puerto Rico medical marijuana dispensaries have begun operating for the first time in the U.S. territory.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said Friday that two dispensaries opened nearly two years after his administration adopted a regulation to allow for the cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of medical marijuana.

Nearly 2,000 patients have registered with the island’s health department so far to obtain medical marijuana.

Officials say the substance can be used in forms including pills, creams, patches and oral drops. Smoking marijuana and cultivating it for personal use remains illegal, although Garcia has said prosecuting marijuana possession would be given the lowest priority by his administration.

Will Canadian cannabis stocks remain under pressure following the release of information related to product recalls or will this weakness provide investors with the best buying opportunity of 2017?

Late last week, The Globe and Mail published an article on the discovery of Myclobutanil, a controversial pesticide found in in products sold by Mettrum Ltd. (MT.V), a federally licensed medical cannabis producer.

What is Myclobutanil?

Myclobutanil is a chemical that is prohibited for use on legal cannabis in Colorado, Washington and Oregon because of health concerns. The pesticide is known to emit hydrogen cyanide when heated.

What do Hercules, Thor, centaurs, and marijuana stocks have in common? They're all the subjects of myths. Most myths have at least a little bit of truth interspersed with a lot that is false. That's the case with these three myths about marijuana stocks that some might mistakenly believe.

Myth No. 1: All marijuana stocks are hot.

Marijuana stocks in general are hot right now. It's wrong, though, to think that all marijuana stocks are performing well. They're not.

Many of you are familiar with the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions. A new year provides many with a feeling of a fresh start; as such, they make resolutions to themselves and others about the ways they plan on improving their lives and/or the lives of others.

It’s also a great time to reset, whether it be your life or your relationships or your career. A time to evaluate where you are and where you want to be.

This year’s election may have been dominated by Donald Trump, but it was also about marijuana. California, Massachusetts and Nevada made recreational use legal as a bunch of other states moved to legalize medical use. The victories weren’t all about getting high. The promise of marijuana is money – money for state taxes and for the bushels of small businesses that are being created in legal weed’s wake. Next year will be a big test for those businesses and, according to some, those promises are already going up in smoke.

If you support the legalization of marijuana, 2016 didn't give you much to complain about. Last year, residents in four states approved recreational-marijuana ballot initiatives, doubling the total from the end of 2015, while five new states put medical-cannabis laws on their books. By year's end, 28 states and Washington, D.C., had legalized medical pot.

It turns out that cannabis businesses are just like any other business – at least when you consider that their sales peak around the holiday season, with the most profitable days being the same as most retailers. According to data collected by the cannabis delivery company Eaze, marijuana deliveries seem to jump quite a bit around the holidays.

This year they reported that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving saw a 71% increase when compared to the yearly average for a Wednesday – and since the beginning of the recreational market, many dispensary owners and industry workers have dubbed the day before Thanksgiving “Green Wednesday”.

For reasons that really should not require a great deal of explanation right now, tens of thousands of people all across California are wondering how the state’s new cannabis industry will look. It’s not to say that the legal marijuana industries of numerous other states aren’t important, it’s simply that they pale in comparison to that of CA. In terms of size, power, influence and value, this is one state-wide cannabis industry that the entire world is going to be watching.

So of course, it’s natural to question exactly how things will look a little further down the line, along with how the industry will integrate with others.

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