The highs and lows of planting Cannabis stocks in your portfolio

Although Ohioans voted against legalizing recreational and medical marijuana, investors are buzzing about marijuana stocks and the possibility of mega returns if more states join in.

Public sentiment is certainly leaning toward legalization. A recent poll by Gallup found that 58% of Americans believe the use of marijuana should be legalized, more than double the support the idea had in the mid-1990’s.

Which form of cannabis is most prevalent on the dispensary menus in your state?

In 2013, renowned Leamington greenhouse growers John Cervini of Lakeside Produce and Cole Cacciavillani of CF Flowers, founded Aphria; the first and still the only 100% licensed medical marijuana greenhouse operation in Canada. We know that we have published a lot about this topic lately, but we would like to bring Aphria's professional approach once more into the spotlight, as the growers transferred years of knowledge from flower and vegetable cultivation into a 22,000 square feet advanced commercial glasshouse operation for the legal cultivation of high quality medical cannabis.

Patrick Casserly, who made his name as a businessman in the information technology market, has taken on a new challenge - ganja.

For the past seven months, Casserly has been running Medicanja Jamaica Limited as its chief executive officer, a quiet appointment that he confirmed to Wednesday Business on Monday.

His immediate focus is getting six of the company's medical marijuana products to market. That will happen by year end, said the Medicanja CEO.

"We're waiting on the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Health," he said.

"The Ministry of Health has been stellar in working hand in hand with us in bringing us to the stage where we can have prescription medication that is made in Jamaica from produce in Jamaica."

The medical cannabis industry is getting down to business as the Australian government and numerous states back plans to let seriously ill patients use marijuana as a treatment.

On 17 October, the Turnbull government revealed plans to legalise growing cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes, while Victorian premier Daniel Andrewsalso announced last month that his state would legalise the drug for medical use in 2017, including children with severe epilepsy.

The Federal Reserve System has a clear stance on when banks are allowed to serve the legal-marijuana industry: it's never OK to do business with pot companies, except when it is.

That, at least, is the confusing message that emerges from comparing the Federal Reserve Board's tolerance of the practice with the hard line taken by one of the system's regional banks in a legal dispute with a Colorado credit union.

Meet Hemp Blue….
They are fighting for the right to grow agricultural hemp in the US. Their product line is sure to please all hipsters around the country….Hemp Denim.

Hemp Denim, really?

Yes, really! While our first collection isn’t made entirely out of hemp, our goal is to create an environmentally friendly denim brand, made entirely out of agricultural hemp. Hemp Blue is supporting the movement to legalize industrial hemp farming in the US. Growing industrial hemp is already legal in almost every industrialized nation including Canada, Russia, China, most of Europe, Argentina and Chile. These countries are making millions of dollars of hemp textiles a year while saving the environment.

Brendan Kennedy, CEO of Privateer Holdings, is the world's most boring drug dealer.

In a smart two-piece suit and tie, hair cropped short, Brendan Kennedy doesn’t look much like the average drug dealer. But that’s precisely the point.

Kennedy is hoping that it is precisely this normality, this whiff of corporateness, that will give him the edge in the burgeoning global cannabis business. Five years ago, the push for the legalisation of marijuana was led by “people who were well intentioned, but weren’t interested in creating brands that don’t embrace the ubiquitous clichés,” he says. That’s where he saw his opportunity.

The Seneca Indian Nation's next business venture could be medical marijuana.

Members of the western New York tribe approved a referendum Tuesday giving leaders the go-ahead to draft laws and regulations governing the manufacturing, use and distribution of the drug.

"A decision on our nation's path of action on medical cannabis is far from made," Seneca President Maurice John Sr. said following the 448-364 vote, "but now, having heard from the Seneca people, our discussions and due diligence can begin in earnest."

Nearly 30,000 packages of marijuana-infused edibles in Colorado were recalled voluntarily in the past few days because they contain potentially dangerous pesticides that are banned for use on cannabis.

The moves represent the two largest recalls of infused pot products to date, according to the Denver Department of Environmental Health.