The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing back a possible rebound in the beleaguered Canadian cannabis market, analysts say. 

Hopes were high at the beginning of the year that the launch of infused cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals, as well as dozens of new stores in Ontario, the country's biggest consumer market, would help boost sales following a lacklustre start to legalization. 

But no one expected a global pandemic to throw a wrench in the industry's plans.

I’ve been fighting for medical cannabis patients for 25 years.

As COVID-19 brings economic growth to a standstill, some in the U.S. believe there’s a way out.

“When we all start to be able to lift our heads from this COVID experience, we are going to be faced with a scenario where a lot of jobs have gone away,” Charlie Bachtell, CEO of U.S.-based cannabis company Cresco Labs, tells CNBC. “How are we going to bring that back? I think cannabis has to be part of that discussion,” he says.

A CAD $1.5 million grant has been awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Cancer Research and the Canadian Cancer Society to look into the use of medical cannabis in children with cancer.

The study, called C4T (Canadian Childhood Cannabinoid Clinical Trials), will be led by the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

A scope into Canada’s response to the Cannabis industry during Covid-19 by province reveals the industry’s resilience in the face of these trying times.

Following record sales of marijuana during the coronavirus lockdowns, the CEO of Aphria said that the time is right to allow pot producers to sell their product directly to customers. 

Speaking to BNN Bloomberg last week, Irwin Simon said he wants to become “what Amazon is to the grocery business,” arguing that online cannabis sales could be the future of the struggling industry. 

Most of the legal cannabis in Canada is sold in government-owned stores and via government-run wholesale distribution schemes. Although medical marijuana is sold directly to patients, Canada’s provinces have different rules for selling weed for recreational use.   

Last month, Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC)(TSE:WEED) announced that it will close two cultivation facilities located in British Columbia and the yet-to-open greenhouse facility in Ontario. On Thursday, the company announced another set of global operational changes to optimize its production, improve efficiency, and better align its supply with the demand.

In recent weeks, the number of orders made through the sole online marketplace in Canada's most populous province Ontario has seen a significant and apparently sustainable increase. BNN Bloomberg, citing data obtained from the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), said that recent daily sales volumes have been significantly (and it appears, steadily and reliably) higher than those of only a month ago.

In early March, prior to the first significant wave of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus cases in North America, the OCS was recording total daily orders of around 2,000. In mid-March that suddenly spiked to over 6,000 as the first measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus were announced. It then settled down into the 5,000 range.

Ontario's cannabis distributor has seen online orders triple since COVID-19 started sweeping the country and prevention measures were implemented, with almost one in three orders coming from new customers.

The Ontario Cannabis Store says it received between 2,500 and 3,500 orders prior to March 9, but in the weeks after mass adoption of physical distancing, those orders doubled to 5,000, then doubled again, topping out at 13,000 in one particular week.

In a bid to continue squeezing out the illegal market and keep up with the demand, the distributor has staffed up, lowered prices on more than 240 cannabis products and launched free shipping during COVID-19 to make legal options more accessible.

There are many ways to consume cannabis. Some like smoking dried flower they can roll in a joint or purchasing pre-rolled joints, while others prefer consuming edibles, whether sweet (donuts) or savory (meatloaf). Still, others prefer their cannabis through vapes, topicals, tinctures, or extracts. Are some forms of cannabis healthier than others?