Marijuana barbecue sauce, anyone?

As Alaska's cannabis cultivators and marijuana stores slowly come online, dozens of marijuana products — from brownies to lotion to high-potency concentrates — are being developed for the Alaska market.

Five businesses have been approved to make edibles and concentrates so far. Three of them — Frozen Budz in Fairbanks, Einstein Labs in Anchorage and Top Hat Concentrates in Juneau — can make edibles, concentrates, tinctures and other products like salves and lotions with their product-manufacturing license approved by the Marijuana Control Board.

The other two, Babylon Company and R.C. Tinderbox, both in Anchorage, have  licenses limiting them to production of marijuana concentrates only.

The cannabis industry has grown (pun intended) drastically over the past five years; in 2016 revenue is expected to hit $6.7 billion.  By 2021, the weed industry is expected to have nearly 14,000 companies generating $27 billion, according to consumer market research firm IBISWorld.

The time is green for businesses to jump in and take a hit of those profits. A new startup, cannabis health and wellness company hmbldt, plans to do just that.

Based in California, hmbldt has created a cutting-edge vape pen that delivers a specific dose and formula of the chemicals compounds found in marijuana tailored to suit the individual needs of the user.

Vancouver dispensary owners are anxious about the federal government’s plan to legalize recreational marijuana but confident the process will eventually be to their benefit.

“We’ve sat with the federal task force and apparently made some really good impressions there,” Jeremy Jacob, president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD), told the Georgia Straight.

“Anne McLellan, the chair of the task force, she spent three hours at the Vancouver Compassion Club,” Jacob recounted. “And she came out saying, ‘How are we going to regulate these shops?’ And according to Mark Ware, the vice chair, he said that certain members of the task force had life-changing experiences while visiting dispensaries.”

More than 18,000 people in Colorado now have full-time jobs because of the legalized marijuana industry, which has generated a $2.39 billion impact on the Rocky Mountain State’s economy.

Those are two of the findings in a new report that attempts to quantify the impact of the marijuana industry in Colorado, one of the first states to legalize cannabis for both medical and recreational use.

The “Economic Impact of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado” report, created by the Marijuana Policy Group in Denver, uses a new model for measuring the economic importance of marijuana called the “marijuana impact model.”

“We’re very proud to be hosting medical cannabis research,” Dr Václav Trojan, head of the Faculty of Agronomy of Mendel University in the Czech Republic, told a group of representatives from some of Europe’s most exciting cannabis organizations who had convened for a three day seminar arranged by the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI) and run by Americans for Safe Access (ASA).

Mendel University, located in the city of Brno, has been researching medical cannabis since the government made it legal to do so around two and a half years ago. The first European seminar of Patient Focused Certification (PFC) was held there last week.

John Stewart used to run the pharmaceutical company behind the narcotic painkiller OxyContin. Now he is banking on medical marijuana.

Mr Stewart does not know which is more controversial these days, OxyContin or pot.

He guesses the average person would give "a bigger negative" to the powerful and controversial painkiller that has been linked to the opioid overdose and addiction epidemic in the US and Canada.

"There is a lot of anti-opioid sentiment," he says, delicately. "And certainly based on the social disruption that we've seen it's understandable."

There are currently eight U.S. states, including California, where the use of both recreational and medical marijuana is totally legal. A bunch more allow for the use of medical marijuana; it’s a given that more states will legalize recreational use in the future. And why not, when 60% of Americans and 70% of Canadians feel it should be legal?

It’s a big reason why Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:CGC) stock has risen exponentially over the last three years—up almost 500% on an annualized basis. Everyone on Bay Street is talking about CGC stock with good reason; it has the potential to be a dominant player in the growing and distribution of marijuana both in Canada and elsewhere.

Before Election Day, San Bruno software application engineer Stephen Zyszkiewicz was busted on a charge of having cannabis with intent to sell– a felony that might have put him behind bars in state prison for three years.

But this month’s passage of Proposition 64 implies the 32-year-old is qualified for a much lowered charge– a misdemeanor that brings a maximum penality of 6 months in county jail and a $500 fine.

“I am enthusiastic. It’s the will of the voters,” stated Zyszkiewicz, who ran The Opposite of the Fence Collective, an unlicensed marijuana operation.

To no one’s particular surprise, neither of the initial public offerings (IPOs) scheduled for last week made it out the door. Both are likely to try again in the coming week.

Through the week ending November 25 IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital reported that 97 IPOs have priced in the U.S. so far this year, down about 42% from a year ago. Total proceeds raised through last week equaled $17.3 billion, down 42% compared with the same period in 2015. Of the 97 IPOs that have gone off this year, 41 have come from the healthcare sector. Last year’s IPO total came in at $30 billion on 170 offerings. Renaissance Capital does not include “best efforts” or blank-check companies in its totals, nor does it include IPOs that raise less than $10 million.

Cannabis stocks ended the week of November 25th on a high note with most companies under Technical420’s coverage in positive territory, and some moving significantly off their weekly lows. 

Although we remain cautiously optimistic, most stocks in the cannabis sector have come down from their pre-election highs. While many cannabis stocks are still attractive investments, recent volatility has caused us to exit several positions in Technical420’s Mock Portfolio.

We want to highlight several cannabis companies that have made significant price movements over the last week and will provide our thoughts on such movements.