The study of CBD and marijuana saw big strides in 2019. Here are some of the most important facts we learned this year.

Every year, CBD becomes a more prominent topic and a more promising business venture for health and wellness companies.

Ontario is thinking about changing the lottery system being used to award cannabis retail licenses after the first year of legalization saw only 24 outlets open, with critics panning the lack of access for consumers

It’s becoming clear cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals probably won’t be a part of holiday shopping this year as provincial regulators can only order products as of Dec. 16.

While storeowners were hoping to bank off the bud and customers were hoping to get high this season, the anticipation for new products will have to spill into January 2020.

But how much will that sting?

Jon Kamin, chief revenue officer at Lift & Co., says it’s a hard question to answer.

“It might have been a good revenue bump for the market as a whole,” he said in a phone interview.

“But it’s such a cluttered media landscape right now … it might’ve actually been very difficult to introduce a new brand given the noise.”

Something good is cooking in B.C. and the rest of the world wants a look at the menu.

Vancouver has quietly transformed itself into a hotbed of cannabis culinary delights since Canada legalized the drug over a year ago. The second wave of legalization, which will soon bring extracts and edibles to store shelves, will only expand the offerings of local chefs, such as marijuana maestro Travis Peterson.

“I see, two years from now, other countries will start to follow Canada’s lead,” Peterson told CBC. “They’ll look at Canadians as the experts in this.”

When the curtain finally closes on 2019, it'll probably go down as the worst year on record for marijuana stocks. After beginning the year with more than a dozen popular pot stocks gaining in excess of 70%, a vast majority wound up losing at least half of their value, if not more, since the end of March.

If there's a light at the end of the tunnel here, it's that the longer-term outlook for the marijuana industry remains unchanged. With tens of billions of dollars being conducted in the black market each year, there's an obvious opportunity to move consumers into legal channels over time.

Canada’s top per-capita cannabis seller won’t be getting a head start on selling cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals.

Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) reports that Alberta will have to wait until the new year before selling Cannabis 2.0 products.

But, the delay wasn’t a surprise.

“It’s the quickest timeline for AGLC to order and receive product from LPs (licensed producers) after the earliest day provinces can legally order from LPs (Dec. 16), to list in inventory for retailers to order and then ship out to stores across the province,” AGLC spokesperson Heather Holmen told The GrowthOp.

Cannabis 2.0 likely won’t come in time for Christmas after all.

Reps in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec all say they expect the first sales of edibles, extracts and topicals to come no sooner than January 2020.

And if anything does come before then it will be a “very limited supply.”

Dec. 16, 2019, is the earliest date that notified products in the new classes could be made available for sale to authorized distributors and sellers in provinces and territories.

As reported by BNN Bloomberg on December 6, OCS (Ontario Cannabis Store) interim CEO Cal Bricker is confident in Ontario’s readiness for the Cannabis 2.0 launch. Although Cannabis 2.0 came into effect on October 17, Cannabis 2.0 edibles, beverages, and vape products will not enter Canada’s commercial arena until mid-December. Bricker expects the products to become available in Ontario starting on January 6, 2020. He claims that the three-week gap in the launch of products in Ontario will help licensed producers better match demand. He doesn’t anticipate any supply-side issues with the Cannabis 2.0 launch in the province.

But some black-market retailers are not intimidated by the government’s aggressive actions.

Marijuana may be legal across Canada now, but B.C.’s newly formed pot police are still busy raiding illegal cannabis stores.

Officially known as the Community Safety Unit, the provincial pot squad is responsible for shutting down unlicensed marijuana merchants.

The year-old special police force is now ramping up its enforcement activities, swooping down on unlicensed cannabis stores and seizing pot, cash, computer records and even weapons.

“The goal is to shut down illegal stores,” said Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth, who revealed the unit has already staged 21 raids of unlicensed retailers.