Canopy Growth Corp. and Martha Stewart are starting their joint bid to break into the CBD market, betting that curated flavors and her celebrity name will bring the ingredient to a new demographic.

Use of CBD, which companies promote as a natural way to mitigate anxiety or manage pain without the high produced by cannabis, has exploded in recent years as attitudes shifted on marijuana and associated products. There are currently around 3,000 brands in a market that Canopy Chief Executive Officer David Klein predicts will reach $10 billion in annual sales in the U.S. by 2023.

Which of These Pot Stocks to Watch is Showing the Most Momentum?

One of the biggest challenges that cultivators, processors and distributors face in doing business is the requirement to track the product at every step in the production process, from seed to sale. When you add the wide range of label sizes and requirements across the supply chain, labeling can feel overwhelming. While business systems such as METRC, BioTrack, MJFreeway and others are key, integrating accurate and secure barcode labeling with those systems will streamline the end-to-end process while meeting traceability requirements. Here are some things to consider, no matter what role in the cannabis supply chain you play.

Led by surging cannabis sales, farm cash receipts in the first half of the year bucked the general decline caused by the coronavirus.

Receipts of $16.7 billion increased 5.2 per cent over 2019, says the Statistics Canada report.

Without a 62 per cent increase — $685 million — in cannabis sales, farm cash receipts would have increased a mere .8 per cent.

Higher crop receipts of $1.3 billion helped offset a $629 million decline in livestock sales. The decrease was caused by market restrictions when COVID-19 broke out.

Lentil receipts tripled to $604 million with better prices and increased exports to India and Turkey.

Canola returns jumped $249 million as China increased buying and more exports elsewhere offset lost Chinese markets.

Oversupply, pricing headwinds, inventory writedowns, and retail store closures due to COVID-19 containment measures -- these things and more have meant a tough year for the legal marijuana market worldwide. Since the beginning of January, the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (TSX:HMMJ) is down 27%. That is an abysmal performance compared with the S&P 500, which is up more than 6% during the same period. 

Despite the fact that we’re living in the heyday of digital media, paper consumption is actually on the upswing — in the last 20 years alone, it’s risen 126 percent. About 208 million tons of paper are used worldwide each year and many of these paper products are used once and then thrown away. In the United States, for example, around 1 billion trees worth of paper is thrown out every year.

As it seeks judicial relief from a run-in with the law last year in Kern County, Calif., hemp grower and researcher Apothio has decided to not merely move key parts of its business to the next city, county or state over—it’s hauling its research-and-development operations to North Bay, Ontario, thousands of miles away.

In the past six months, cannabis investors have focused mostly on U.S. marijuana stocks. This includes pot stocks like Green Thumb Industries Inc. (OTC:GTBIF) and Planet 13 Holdings Inc. (OTC:PLNHF). And while these pot stocks do have potential, investors seem to have lost focus on the Canadian cannabis industry.

Cronos Group Inc. appointed Kurt Schmidt to be its new chief executive officer on Wednesday in a move the cannabis producer said will help usher in a new phase of growth for the Toronto-based company. 

Schmidt, who has worked in the consumer packaged goods space for more than three decades at companies such as Blue Buffalo Company Ltd. and Nestlé S.A., replaces Mike Gorenstein, who will become Cronos' new executive chairman.

I am the son of Haitian immigrants, a United States Navy veteran, a husband and father, and the Co-Founder and CPO of a cannabis wellness company. I consider myself a patriot and I love this country. I am also no stranger to racism. As the Black Lives Matter movement has boldly brought to light long-standing, deep-rooted, systemic racism in our country, I’ve noticed my anxiety has markedly increased. I’ve been scared to drive on public roads and I’m apprehensive about speaking up against signs of hate for fear of repercussions and retaliation that would affect both me and my family.