The election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals has had an immediate impact on the investment marketplace, with a rush to invest in the handful of publicly traded Canadian medical marijuana startups – all on the promise of legalization of recreational marijuana use.

However, as with any burgeoning new industry, including the Canadian cannabis industry as it “whitens” from its previous black-market status, investors considering directing their capital there may want to take a temporary respite from hitting the go button.

Investors who make assumptions today about what may be profitable tomorrow will likely find their wallets considerably lightened by a changing set of regulatory circumstances.

WINCHESTER, Ky. - Tucked away off a narrow country road in Clark County, in the middle of a farm, 27 acres of hemp grew all summer. Now, the plants will be harvested and processed.

Kentucky, hailed as a leader by industrial hemp advocates, has grown the hemp. Now the state is working on growing the industry.

"In two years, we've come a long way," said Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who is now running for Congress. "We've proven first of all that it's not a drug, which was very important for the opposition to realize. And we've proven it's economically viable, or there wouldn't be 22 companies that have made an investment in the state. ... What we're doing now is working with the companies that want to go to the next step to commercialize the product. "

Barring some major backtracking by Canada’s new Liberal government, marijuana could soon be legal across the land.

Getting rid of the laws that criminalize the drug shouldn’t be too challenging, according to one U.S. official, but actually implementing and monitoring the market for it will be a complex exercise.

Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division director Lewis Koski spoke to The West Block‘s Tom Clark this weekend about his state’s experience since it made marijuana legal for recreational purposes back in 2013.

The GTA’s first medical marijuana consultation centre opened in Etobicoke on Thursday. Better by Tweed is located on Dundas St. W, near Kennedy Rd., and was established by Canadian medical marijuana supply company Tweed Marijuana Inc.

The Toronto Sun recently spoke with its chairman and CEO Bruce Linton.

Q: What does Better by Tweed do?

A: “They allow people who have any array of questions on medical access to marijuana: How do I get it? How do I use the product if I get it? They provide point of contact to the community. And the people who work in Better By Tweed locations answer those questions face to face. And on the occasions when there is no client present, they are part of a call queue assisting (people) on the phone.”

Mark Hauk, the owner of an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary in Saskatoon, says he'll reopen his dispensary today, after spending Thursday night in jail and Friday morning in front of a judge to face drug trafficking charges related to his business.

"I don't have a condition that I can't be at the store," Hauk said at a protest staged in front of the Saskatoon police headquarters on Saturday afternoon.

He was released on $1,000 bail on Friday morning after appearing before a judge at Provincial Court.

"To be there and do advocacy work, it's not a breach of conditions, it's not against the law. And it's work that needs to be done," he said, noting he'll be providing "advice to patients in any way that they need it."

Almost 15 per cent of tobacco products used in B.C. are contraband, costing the provincial treasury an estimated $100 million a year in lost tax revenue. It’s a glimpse of what awaits governments in a legalized-marijuana world.

Legalized — or at least decriminalized — marijuana is inevitable. Its widespread use demands that governments regulate, tax and monitor the use of the drug, just as they do tobacco and alcohol. To do otherwise makes no sense.

Meet Reggie and the team at GGS who put together this series of campy videos fun for halloween weekend.

Doctors nervous about prescribing medical marijuana got some answers Thursday night at an information session for physicians.

It was hosted by Canadian Cannabis Clinics, the company operating a cannabis clinic in Windsor.

Tim O'Callaghan, one of the physicians who attended, says marijuana has not been subjected to the same rigorous approval process as other new drugs.

"By the time it gets to us, in terms of being able to prescribe it, we've got very solid evidence around what the indications are for that medicine and what the right patient is to use it on," he said of drugs.

O'Callahan also says trying to figure out if a patient is faking an illness to get a marijuana prescription makes some doctors skeptical. 

Those with a stake in cannabis-related companies weren't just hoping the Liberals would win the federal election, they were banking on it.

Legalized marijuana could be a budding into big business in Canada if the party follows through on its much-publicized campaign pledge, with one analysis projecting a $5 billion market for recreational weed.

The same analysis paints a picture of the path legalization will take, at first mimicking alcohol sales, then becoming subject to potential takeovers by Big Tobacco -- a scenario that has long worried critics of Justin Trudeau's legalization plan.

Experts are mulling over the future of medical marijuana dispensaries.

Dispensaries, designed to help people gain access to medical marijuana more easily, have been controversial in many parts of the country.

On Thursday, Saskatoon Police arrested four people connected to the Saskatchewan Compassion Club, charging them with drug trafficking.

Since the incoming Liberal government has promised to legalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana, the question of how the new government will handle dispensaries has become top of mind.