The Canadian medical cannabis industry continues to be a bright spot in the cannabis sector as its constituents are led by management teams that continue to execute on business initiatives and create value for shareholders.

One the biggest developments in 2015 was the victory by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party as they will make cannabis legalization a priority. The outcome of the campaign was a huge victory for the Canadian cannabis industry and it has already severed as a catalyst for stocks levered to the cannabis industry.

Catalysts Ahead 

One billion dollars.

If current trends keep up, that will be the value of marijuana retail and producer/processor sales in Washington state on a yearly basis. With few exceptions, state marijuana sales have risen every month since the first recreational stores opened two years ago, bringing millions in state taxes and thousands of jobs.

That’s the good news.

“The picture thus far is a curate’s egg — good in parts,” writes University of Washington professor emeritus Roger Roffman. “No policy change of this magnitude will go precisely according to plan.”

So what still needs fixing?

The best of Oregon’s crops and cows will make their way to the state capital at the end of this month for the Oregon State Fair. As with most state fairs, there will be plenty of cotton candy, rickety carnival rides, and foods that probably shouldn’t be deep fried. In Oregon, though there will be one unique exhibition no other state can claim: a legal display of award-winning marijuana plants.

Fairgoers over the age of 21 can see the plants at the Oregon Cannabis Business Council’s booth in an exhibition hall. “You can’t display plants out in the open,” says Don Morse, head of the council, “because there are kids around. So the plants will be in a greenhouse, manned by security guards.”

With nearly 3,000 caregivers, competition has ramped up as operations get larger and businesses look for a niche.

Brett Messer and Stephanie Caron operate Brigid Farm in a nondescript building in Saco’s industrial zone. There are no signs that hint at what takes place behind the building’s locked doors.

In Unity, Dawson Julia operates a 14,000-square-foot warehouse on a main road through town, with a sign that indicates the former dairy building is the home of East Coast CBDs.

And up in Fort Kent, Steve Rusnack runs his businesses, Full Bloom Head Shop and Full Bloom Cannabis, out of a storefront on Main Street.

In marijuana dispensaries across Ottawa, customers are snapping up dried weed, cannabis brownies and hash, while authorities at every level stand by.

Federal politicians condemn the dispensaries as illegal businesses selling products that may be unsafe. They want Canada’s drug laws enforced, but that’s up to the police.

Ottawa police say they have been monitoring the dispensaries since the first one opened in November 2015. They don’t reveal details of “ongoing investigations.”

Making edibles can be an ordeal. Even basic recipes tend to use cannabutter or oil, which takes time, and lots of product, to create. Given the choice between labour-intensive kitchen science, and busting out the vaporizer, most of us choose the latter.

Hipsters, hippies, and young families love farmer's markets: after all, what's not to love? Sampling new things. Eschewing factory-farmed, environmentally unsustainable produce in favour of organic goodies grown by a farmer you've actually met and conversed with. Best of all? What you're buying is not only awesome and delicious, but also grown without scary pesticides and exploitative, factory farming techniques. 

After Ohio became the 26th state to legalize medical marijuana, plans to implement the new law have caused state officials to become concerned about the financial hurdles that lie ahead.

State officials have proposed a “closed-loop” payment processing system that is similar to pre-paid debit or gift cards.

The system would require that MMJ patients and registered caregivers put money into special accounts, using checks, credit cards or cash at state-licensed liquor stores,  or a state agency.

A new class designed to teach people how to grow marijuana is expected to create a lot of buzz in Windsor, Ont.

Leo Lucier plans to start the classes later this month at his downtown cannabis vaping lounge, which already provides a space for medical marijuana users to consume their pot.

Launching what he calls the School of Higher Learning at his Vapelated Lounge will depend on what new regulations the federal government introduces.

In February, a Federal Court judge struck down regulations restricting the rights of medical marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis, giving Ottawa six months to come up with new rules.

No one has signed up for classes yet, but Lucier doesn't suspect he'll have any difficulties finding students.

In June 2014, the disgraced former CEO of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) signed Florida’s medical marijuana bill into law. It was a fitting beginning to a regulatory process that has been marred by shadowy fraud in the selection of lucrative vertically integrated licenses in what could become one of the largest medical marijuana markets in the country. The state appears poised to double down upon the fraud, and in keeping with Governor Rick Scott’s legacy of putting healthcare profits before people, some of the new law’s provisions could shield corporate revenues at the expense of fragile patients.