Irish Revenue officials have once again intercepted packages containing cannabis from the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Spain thanks to the Baileys, two drug-detecting dogs whose sole mission is to sniff out contraband.

In all, packages received at both the Dublin and Athlone mail centres contained 141,000 euros (just shy of $213,000) in illicit weed.

When Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC) announced plans to acquire Acreage Holdings in 2019, it was an innovative and unique way for the company to position itself for growth in the U.S. market ahead of legalization. Even though the deal still can't be completed due to the federal ban on marijuana in the U.S., it is a way for Canopy Growth to demonstrate to investors how it plans to succeed and grow when pot becomes legal.

Canadian retailers are making their presence known south of the border, seeking additional growth while attempting to establish a foothold ahead of U.S. legalization plans. 

Fire & Flower Holdings Inc., High Tide Inc., and Canopy Growth Corp.'s Tweed have begun wading into the U.S. cannabis market in recent weeks, taking similar cues from pot producers who have also entered the U.S. despite regulations that prevent Canadian-listed companies from fully operating in the space. 

"The companies are using Canada as their testing ground to get to the real prize, which is ultimately the U.S.," said ATB Capital Markets Analyst David Kideckel, in an interview. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caught the world completely off guard. It changed the way everything works, and it made a significant impact on most industries all over the globe. The cannabis industry also saw some massive changes due to its impact.

One of the most common questions cannabis consumers ask one another is how much cannabis costs in their part of the world.

It’s always fun to compare cost, quality, and quantity.

One thing many cannabis consumers across the globe will be quick to point out is that cannabis is not cheap. 

For the lucky folks who live in a part of the world where cannabis is decent quality and cheap, congratulations.

But for the rest of us, high-quality cannabis is usually fairly expensive.

Canadian marijuana company Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC) will be directly active in the U.S. market inside of a year. That's according to CEO David Klein, who is banking on the environment for cannabis businesses in the U.S. to improve markedly in the proximate future.

"What we really need is some combination of SAFE Banking, a revised Cole memorandum, and a reclassification by the executive branch, all of which ... probably happens in the next six to eight months anyway," he said in an interview Friday with Canadian business news organization BNN Bloomberg.

Investors digested the somewhat unexpected win of two Georgia Senate seats by the Democrats on Wednesday, completing an apparent so-called blue wave that could have major consequences on the stock market.

Democrat Raphael Warnock beat incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in one of Georgia's two Senate run-offs, and Democrat Jon Ossoff was leading incumbent David Perdue in the other.

Making predictions about California’s marijuana industry was a challenge even before a global pandemic changed everything.

It’s not just that the legal cannabis market, which launched three years ago in California, is so new. It’s also the singularity of an industry in which licensed, legal operators still compete against a much larger illicit market, even as the industry’s core consumer product — which is medicine for some people — remains illegal at the federal level.

It's been a crazy year on Wall Street. Investors only have eyes for the unrelenting rally in and growth prospects of tech stocks. But they might be overlooking an even greater growth story: marijuana stocks.

Though cannabis stocks have been on a wild ride of their own over the last five to seven years, we're beginning to see the first signs of industry maturation. In October 2018, Canada became the first industrialized country in the world to roll out the green carpet for recreational marijuana sales.