There were queues all over Canada on Wednesday as people stood in line to be the first to buy non-medical cannabis legally. This represented a big step forward for Canada as it became the second country in the world, after Uruguay, to legalize the possession and use of cannabis. Whilst medicinal marijuana has been legal since 2001, the recent legalization is the outcome of a promise the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made in his 2015 campaign for office.

Marijuana has now been legal in Canada for an entire week, with things mostly going as expected. Users and curious onlookers have packed into retail stores, while thousands of others have crashed websites ordering their cannabis online. Some folks got their pot without issue, while many others are still waiting for their supply from overwhelmed government agencies.

HEXO Corporation (TSX:HEXO) Monday reported that it has ample leeway to support the growing demand for cannabis in Canada. The Company, being a preferred supplier with the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC), has delivered on all its cannabis orders and was also able to replenish stock across the country.

With marijuana now legalized for recreational use in Canada, it's a good time to talk about hemp, as many people may still have misconceptions about how the two plants differ. Marijuana and hemp may look the same growing in a farmer's field, but hemp is very different from marijuana and has been legal in Canada since 1998.

Interest from alcohol giants like Constellation Brands Inc. and Molson Coors Brewing Co. has made cannabis-infused beverages the most talked-about product in the pot industry, but there’s one widely acknowledged problem: they taste awful.

A tiny Canadian company thinks it’s found a solution. Instead of infusing a drink with cannabinoids like THC or CBD, then masking the oily, bitter concoction with sugar as many beverage makers do in the U.S., Province Brands of Canada is developing beer brewed directly from the cannabis plant.

The Ontario Cannabis Store says first-day customers could see further delays as a result of ongoing Canada Post strikes and high demand.

The OCS said “unbelievably high demand” for cannabis products and “complicated” rotating strikes at Canada Post operations are causing ongoing shipment delays, according to a Tuesday news release.

“While a majority of first-day orders will be fulfilled within days, many first-day customers will still see delivery times that are longer,” the statement read.

Just as the legal cannabis industry has exploded in recent years, so too has a sector that revolves around the plant's non-psychoactive cousin: hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD). Hemp-derived CBD products continue to dominate the cannabis market as less legal restrictions allow for companies to expand new products to previously untapped consumer segments. The demand for hemp-based cannabidiol has skyrocketed, especially since a 2013 CNN report about the success in Colorado of Charlotte's Web, a CBD product that helped a young epileptic girl control her seizures. CBD is expected to become a billion dollar industry itself and could potentially eclipse the entire traditional cannabis market, according to analysts.

It turns out that when you legalize marijuana, a lot of people show up to buy it. That development seemed to surprise cannabis controllers in Canada, where shortages were reported almost immediately after legal recreational sales began last week.

Darius Cain, 19, inhales a large amount of smoke from the cannabis concentrate "shatter" at a Weeds shop in Vancouver. The hit leaves him a little glassy-eyed and very cheerful.

Last Wednesday — when cannabis became legal across the country — was Cain's first visit to the dispensary. He's been back every day or two since.

On Monday, he wasn't buying anything to take home, just enjoying the shatter — what's known as "dabs." "Just dabs and that's it, then I go back home and have a nap, wake back up and that's it," said Cain. "Just a simple life." Cain is finding what he's looking for in the Vancouver dispensary market, but it's outside the bounds of the new laws, and for many in Vancouver, legalization has actually made cannabis harder to get. 

Recreational cannabis use may now be legal in Canada, but South Koreans visiting the country who are tempted to smoke up risk facing punishment back home, their government warned on Tuesday.

“Even if South Koreans are in a region where marijuana is legal, it will be illegal for them to consume it,” the South Korean Embassy in Canada said on Twitter. “Please take care not to commit an illegal act and be punished.”

South Koreans have known for decades that they can be prosecuted at home for using drugs overseas, even in countries where consumption is legal.

Under the country’s narcotics law, growing, possessing, transporting or consuming marijuana is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won, about $44,000.