In a much friendlier regulatory environment than the United States, new Canadian cannabis companies are already going international in a big way.

North of the border, cannabis was legalized nationwide in Canada, and the legal sale of cannabis is imminent, while in the United States a patchwork of state-level marijuana laws and a strongly anti-cannabis attorney general complicate business.

With an expected $22.6 billion market projected in Canada alone, Canadian companies already have a significant head start, and that could be just the beginning as they take their operations abroad.

"All eyes are on Canada right now, not only for what's coming (with recreational legalization), but also because Canada has basically defined the standards on how to do a medical cannabis industry," said Pierre Debs, managing director of Spektrum Cannabis GmbH, a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Inc. (TSX:WEED) (OTC:TWMJF)  in an interview with Financial Post.

Owners of the Tweed brand of cannabis products, Canopy Growth, is expanding into Europe and the Caribbean. The company expects to import up to 200kg per month of dried Canadian cannabis flower into Germany by the end of 2018, from a current level of 150kg monthly, according to Debs. The company has a new greenhouse in the Danish city of Odense, which it has already begun the work of converting for cannabis propagation, and is building eight new greenhouses in Kingston, Jamaica, for export across the Caribbean.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSXV:ACB) (OTC:ACBFF) took over CanniMed late last year, an acquisition that bolstered its cannabis research as the company advances on the markets of Denmark, Italy, and Germany.

Aphria Inc. (TSXV:APH) (OTC:APHQF) spent almost a half a billion dollars to purchase Nuuvera, which owns one of only seven licenses to import medical cannabis to Italy. Nuuvera CEO Lorne Abony claims the Italian market could be worth "$9 billion larger than the combination of the recreational and medical markets in Canada." Aphria, however, considers it well worth the price tag. Until the stock dropped in price, they had originally been willing to spend a whole lot more. Nuuvera finally sold for $425 million.

Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CRON) (TSX.V:MJN), which recently became the first marijuana company to get listed on the NASDAQ, signed a five year exclusive supply contract in October with German pharmaceutical giant G. Pohl-Boskamp GmbH & Co. KG. With that deal, the company potentially gets access to a network of 12,000 German pharmacies.

"When you step back and look at sheer numbers and population … it is unrealistic to believe that (Canada) would be more than 25 percent (of Cronos' business), once we go over three years," said Mike Gorenstein, Cronos' chief executive told Financial Post.

Finally, MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. (CSE: MYM) (OTC: MYMMF) is positioning itself for growth in two countries in the southern hemisphere, Australia and Colombia. The company is working on a 1.2 million square foot facility in New South Wales, Australia, and “adding a significant second Southern-Hemisphere operation, with leading Colombian medical cannabis company NEWCANNA” in Colombia, according to a statement.