British Columbia's government says the first batch of legal marijuana edibles, extracts and topical will soon be available for purchase, two months after they were legalized in Canada.

The province says it received its first shipments of the products Wednesday and has made them available to private and public retailers via its wholesale customer portal.

The Ministry of Attorney General says consumers can expect to see them on store shelves by the end of the month, based on shipping schedules.

The province's liquor control branch is the only wholesale distributor of non-medical cannabis in B.C.

Canada was the first major economy in the world to legalize cannabis in 2018, giving it a headstart in establishing a competitive cannabis business marketplace.

But now some are saying the winds are shifting and the U.S. is catching up and becoming a more attractive place to build a cannabis business.

Part of this change has to do with criticism of investment practices in Canada.

Commercial real estate owners aren’t as high on cannabis legalization as they had hoped they’d be.

More than a year after cannabis was legalized in Canada, some analysts say the sometimes overhyped economic potential of the pot industry also infected B.C.’s real estate market.

As the country closed in on the legalization date last year, many in the real estate industry were excited about potential sales and investment opportunities. For realtors, cannabis legalization meant additional production facilities and retail spaces to sell or lease. However, that boom has yet to materialize.

A number of prominent cannabis retail chains including Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. and High Tide Inc. are in the process of taking ownership control of Ontario cannabis retail stores held by the winners of the first lottery round, thanks to a clause in the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO)’s rules that allows for those stores to be sold after one year.

The first 25 lottery winners were officially allowed to start shopping for buyers on Dec. 13, one year to the date after the province first announced a temporary cap of 25 stores. But many already had agreements containing takeover options with cannabis companies seeking to enter Ontario’s retail market.

Often, when analysts or bloggers talk up the potential of marijuana stocks, the focus is on the consumer side of the industry. But some of the best stocks in the pot sector may be medical marijuana stocks.

The past six months for marijuana stocks have been less than stellar for most companies. Many have stated that the recession amongst cannabis companies, maybe over at this point in time. This means that some companies could be picked up for bare-bottom prices. One of the things to note about looking for marijuana stocks to buy is that the market is still very young. This shows that despite some companies having a large amount of intrinsic value, trading is still done off of speculation.

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Cannabis 2.0 has become a major buzz word for the cannabis industry and this is an opportunity that we are excited about. The term refers to how the Canadian cannabis market is changing with the legalization of cannabis derivative products.

This represents a massive opportunity for cannabis producers and brands in Canada and we have been highly focused on this vertical. During the last year, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of companies that are levered to this market and this is something that investors need to be aware of.

Health Canada has issued a recall for more than 700 bottles of mislabelled cannabis oil gel capsules in New Brunswick.

“Namaste CBD Light gelcaps” from LP Zenabis actually contained THC (aka tetrahydrocannabinol) instead of CBD (cannabidiol). While both THC and CBD are psychoactive, only THC is intoxicating.

“These units contain the incorrect cannabis product,” notes the recall notice. “The label indicates that the product is ‘CBD Light gelcaps’. However, the units contain THC gelcaps.”

The recall was issued December 17.

Canadians bought nearly 100 tonnes of legal recreational cannabis in its first year of availability, while inventory levels continued to rise, new figures from Health Canada show.

Health Canada said 88,676 kilograms of dried flower cannabis was sold in Canada in the first year of legalization, according to its monthly Cannabis Tracking System. Overall sales of legal dried cannabis by weight have nearly tripled since October of 2018.