Over the next decade, marijuana is on track to be one of the fastest growing industries. Although estimates vary wildly, worldwide sales could tally anywhere from $50 billion to $200 billion by the time 2030 rolls around. For context, global weed sales tallied just shy of $11 billion in 2018. It's this rapid growth of an already popular industry that has investors piling into pot stocks.

However, the cannabis industry isn't immune to that which plagues all next-big-thing investments. I'm talking about growing pains. To our north, regulatory issues have constrained supply and created huge bottlenecks. Meanwhile, in the U.S., high tax rates on legal product have made it difficult for licensed producers to compete with black-market growers on price.

The chemical in marijuana that makes people high may be effective in treating a potentially lethal coronavirus (COVID-19) complication, researchers at the University of South Carolina recently announced.

The researchers quoted studies, co-published by Prakash Nagarkatti, which found that the chemical THC, the most mind-altering chemical in marijuana, prevented a harmful immune response that causes Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in mice and caused a significant increase in healthy lung bacteria

When ingested in oil form, one of the most popular consumption methods, the effectiveness of CBD and THC becomes compromised.

A product can claim to contain large amounts of THC or CBD and that it will provide powerful benefits. But while this may be true, it doesn’t explain the complex process of how cannabis ends up absorbed through the bloodstream, which is known as bioavailability. When it comes to CBD and THC oils, the amount of that ends up absorbed in your blood is usually very little.

It's legal, and now you can buy it anywhere. But if during the pandemic you started ordering pot – like everything else—online, you may have run into some problems.

That's what happened to one Port Alberni man, who asked McLaughlin On Your Side not to identify him. He'd ordered cannabis online before, and decided to try Hello Ganja, a site based out of the United States. 

The site offered a 25 per cent discount on larger orders. 

"I noticed if I bought bulk I could get a fairly decent price, but of course that costs more," he told CTV News.

So the man ordered thousands of dollars' worth of cannabis from the company, expecting it to be shipped to his home. But the package never showed up at his door. 

Several prominent Canadian cannabis retailers are asking the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to take a hard look into Weedmaps to stamp out illicit marijuana operators on the popular online platform. 

The letter, co-signed by the heads of eight cannabis retailers including High Tide Inc. and Superette Inc., said that more work needs to be done to shut down the proliferation of illicit cannabis dispensaries and delivery services across Canada. The signatories focused their attention on Weedmaps, a website that operates as a platform for both legal and illicit dispensaries and delivery services in the letter delivered on Monday to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic firmly in place, industries relying on events are being forced to not only rethink their marketing and promotion strategies, they are also seeing a demand to take their shows online by innovating reactive, virtual platforms. 

2020 will always be remembered as the year of coronavirus. In the retail marketplace, people were driven away from physical retail stores and became increasingly reliant on remote shopping. Also, many nervous consumers dealing with pandemic-induced stress and sleeping disorders have been embracing the relatively new marketplace of cannabidiol (CBD) products. 

Unfortunately, this dynamic has created a perfect storm for fraud, as scam artists hide behind the anonymity of the internet and prey on unsuspecting consumers with subpar, fake and/or counterfeit CBD goods. 

Anyone that has cultivated cannabis will tell you that it is one of the most rewarding activities they have ever done.

Look for cannabis-infused drinks to make a splash next year. According to the ‘Disrupting Drinks’ report published by cannabis market intelligence firm Prohibition Partners, cannabis drinks are likely to pose a threat to the dominating alcoholic beverage industry. The report also states that the market for cannabis-infused drinks is expected to rise to an estimated $4 billion by 2024. 

An Ontario cannabis consumer is out more than $400 after trying to purchase cannabis from Canadian Hemp Co., an unlicensed online retailer.