Geldhof, 40, arrived at Central Cannabis on Wonderland Road, just north of Oxford Street, around 7 a.m.

“It’s a historic day for Ontario,” Geldhof said from the front of the line that grew to nearly 200 people.

Monday marked the debut of brick-and-mortar pot retail stores in Ontario. Central Cannabis was one of just 10 of the outlets to get the green light from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the province’s pot regulator, to open.

After a slight delay, staffers in green hoodies welcomed customers inside at 9:45 a.m. following a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Since the recent birth of the recreational cannabis industry in Canada and the U.S., many have believed that the medicinal market may eventually take a downturn. While this may be true, it seems as though the medicinal market is finding its niche audience, and they have no plans for slowing down any time soon. There are several reasons that the medicinal industry still has a long way to go and the road only looks to keep going up.

One of the reasons that the medicinal industry has been able to stay around at least from a financial perspective is the fact that recreationally based cannabis stocks are still highly volatile and very risky. These companies have a large amount of supply issues, packaging shortages and regulatory measures that are very difficult to navigate.

The Yukon government's cannabis sales have taken a substantial bite out of the local black market, according to the minister responsible for the territory's liquor corporation.

"Sales in the Yukon have now broken $2 million," said John Streicker.

"We know that by legalizing cannabis, we have begun to displace the black market. And that is one of our main goals."

Streicker was responding to questions in the Legislative Assembly from NDP Leader Liz Hanson, who asked whether the government was tracking illicit cannabis sales to confirm the impact of legalization.

A recent research article questions just how big the Canadian legal market cannabis market will be, but like most others it really means just how large it could be! The report stated: "On October 17, 2018, Canada became the first G7 nation to fully legalize recreational cannabis. As a massive, formerly black market transforms into an above-board one, companies from around the globe in a range of disparate industries—agriculture, yes, but also tobacco, beer, software, and even fashion and design—aim to cash in. But no one knows exactly how large this market will be. Both immediately and in the coming years, attitudes about marijuana in Canada inevitably will change.

Customers lined up to purchase pot at Ontario's first brick-and-mortar cannabis stores on Monday, but fewer than half of the province's government-licensed outlets were ready to open.

The Progressive Conservative government had planned to have 25 stores launch on April 1, but some were still working through a lengthy approval process.

The province's Alcohol and Gaming Commission, which is overseeing the store vetting process, said 10 stores were given the green light to open Monday, though the shop operators can determine their own opening day and business hours.

Three stores were authorized to open in Ottawa, two in Kingston and one each in Toronto, Brampton, Burlington, London, and St. Catharines.

As the legalization of cannabis in Nova Scotia nears its six-month anniversary, it appears sales are still “smoking hot” across the province, including Cape Breton.

“While we aren’t experiencing the lineups in our stores that we saw in the early days, we are seeing a consistent pattern in sales with our stores in metro Halifax and Sydney River doing the greatest volume of business,” said Beverly Ware, spokeswoman with the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp.

“The growth of local product sales continues to be strong as Nova Scotians appreciate the quality of local product offerings and show their support for innovative local business that provide local jobs and invest in their communities.”

The people of Ontario are bound to feel delighted with the inauguration of the very first outdoor pot smoking area at the “POTio” festival. People can readily broaden their knowledge about the world of cannabis by paying a visit and learning about its means of safe consumption. POTio is the very first festival which is expected to be followed by an array of other organisers for coming up with events and festivals all across Ontario.

The marijuana industry has been practically unstoppable in recent years, with that momentum carrying over into 2019. Through the first three months of the year, the broad-based Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF has risen by approximately 60%.

According to Wall Street investment banks, this is an industry forecast to grow at a double-digit annual pace for years to come, with some analysts pegging annual global sales at between $50 billion and $75 billion by the end of the next decade. Presumably, with growth this robust, it's going to lead to some hefty gains for investors.

The first legal pot shop in Toronto is ready to open its doors Monday morning.

Speaking inside the four-level retail store located at 202 Queen Street West, the communications officer for The Hunny Pot Cannabis Co. told CP24 that their team is “really excited for people to see the space.”

“Our focus from the very beginning was to open on April 1 at 9 a.m. and we never wavered from that,” Cameron Brown said. “We knew that we wanted to be open to make that first sale and the fact that we are the first Toronto retailer to be open and to make that first sale in the biggest market in Canada, I can’t express how excited we are about that.”

Although the process to set up shop was very quick, Brown said their 50-person team is ready to serve.

Shutting down the marijuana black market will require more legal cannabis and more licensed producers, according to the provincial bureaucrat who works on Manitoba's cannabis strategy.

"Breaking the black market is a key aspect of legalization," said Michael Legary, a senior project manager with Manitoba's priorities and planning secretariat.

"You have to have a legal supply available to do that. And if we do not have legal supply, people will go to the previous channels they were using," he said.

John Arbuthnot, CEO of Delta 9 Cannabis, agrees there is not enough pot to go around. Both he and Legary were panelists at a cannabis industry event Wednesday organized by the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Winnipeg.