Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) and Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB) are the two top frontrunners in the hot Canadian marijuana scene. While both names are an effective means to capitalize from the Canadian “green rush,” there are some significant differences between each company’s respective strategy that investors ought to know about before pulling the trigger on either one of the two pot giants. Aurora Cannabis stock Consolidation within the Canadian marijuana scene is inevitable. Most pundits believe that a majority of the M&A activities will be conducted over the next three years or so, but Aurora’s management team isn’t willing…

FREDERICTON – Canopy Growth, one of the largest cannabis producers in the world, is investing $40 million in a new production facility in Fredericton. The Smiths Falls, Ont.–headquartered company will also create up to 136 jobs over the next six years.

Canopy Growth will be looking to fill various positions, including lab supervisors, technologists, growers, post-harvest crews, quality assurance experts, maintenance crews, and shipping and on-site retail staff.

So far, the company has hired five people and will host a job fair soon.

Customers are served at a pop-up shop selling the Oh Henry! 4:25 chocolate bar in a photo provided by Hershey Canada.

Undeterred by a ban on edibles in Canada’s initial rollout of legal recreational marijuana, food companies have found a way to cash in on the buzz by catering to post-consumption cravings with marijuana-free munchies.

The country is gearing up for cannabis legalization for recreational use on Oct. 17, but edible products infused with pot will remain illegal until specific government regulations are rolled out in 2019 at the earliest.

But some food firms have found an easier way to capitalize on cannabis by avoiding the plant altogether and focusing on the “munchies,” the side effect of increased hunger that marijuana can induce.

A proliferation of pot store owners are getting ready for legalization in B.C., but they will have to wait a while to see if they can get a provincial licence.

The attorney general’s ministry posted details Thursday of its requirements for cannabis retail licences, to be issued to qualifying stores in preparation for the federal legalization of recreational marijuana sales in October.

B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch has been renamed the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch in preparation for the new era, where Canada becomes the first industrialized country to make the product legal for adult use.

Fresh from banning smoking in public housing units, the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville are now looking at prohibiting their tenants from growing pot. 

The counties’ joint services committee this week asked Alison Tutak, director of community and social services, to report back on the counties’ social-housing rules on growing plants indoors.

Mayor Erika Demchuk of Gananoque said some Canadian landlords, including Homestead Land Holdings, which rents more than 25,000 apartments in Ontario, are sending out notices banning the growing of pot by tenants. She wondered whether Leeds and Grenville should do the same in public housing.

A report from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce projected that the legal cannabis market would become a $6.5 billion industry by the year 2020. This number would eclipse spending on alcohol in Canada. Legal cannabis markets in the United States, like those in Colorado and Washington, have demonstrated that cannabis has indeed eaten into the market share for alcohol.

A former president and chief executive officer of Molson Inc. says most big brewers are likely exploring cannabis investments as they seek to stem declining sales amid fierce competition from craft beer makers.

“The youth that manages some of the beer companies will be much more open to do that. The older board members will probably be a little more hesitant,” Daniel O’Neill said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Wednesday, when asked about the prospect of more cannabis and alcohol tie-ups.

“There will be that conversation going on in most of the brewers.”

If you believe some of the rhetoric surrounding Canada’s cannabis space, today’s pharmaceutical companies should feel threatened by the rise of medical marijuana and its ability to treat any number of ailments.

Don’t believe the hype, says Eden Rahim of Next Edge Capital, who argues that investors would be better off treating companies like Canopy Growth and Aurora Cannabis as glorified commodity producers rather than biotech specialists.

Recreational pot may be just a few months away here in Canada but many in the industry are pointing to medical cannabis as the truly international story. Along with a growing number of US states, countries like Germany, Italy and Denmark have in recent years made the move to legalize medical pot.

The government’s proposed pot packaging rules don’t give cannabis companies enough freedom to market their products, handicapping them against black-market competition, one business professor says.

Big tobacco, meanwhile, is crying foul over the draft guidelines, saying marijuana producers are being given more leeway than their cigarette-making counterparts.

With recreational marijuana to be legalized on Oct. 17, critics are taking aim at Health Canada’s initial guidelines for packaging and branding marijuana. The rules require cannabis companies to use plain packaging, similar to cigarettes, that displays a health warning on a bright yellow background.

The Saskatchewan government on Wednesday unveiled its fine structure around the sale and use of recreational marijuana, which will soon be legal. 

"These new regulations that apply to cannabis are similar to current rules regarding alcohol," the government said in a news release.

The fines will range from $200 to $2,250.

The fines include: