American and Canadian marijuana stocks alike have had an absolutely terrible 2019. Bureaucratic red tape in Canada has led to a painfully slow rollout of brick-and-mortar retail locations in key provinces like Ontario, whereas sky-high tax rates in the U.S. have kept the black market firmly in business in all-important states such as California. 

Glen Herrington wants to start a weed farm, but his neighbours aren’t so sure.

Herrington is applying for a micro-cultivation licence to grow medical cannabis on his 10-acre property in Nasonworth, just south of Fredericton.

If the application is approved, he will be allowed to use 2,150 sq. ft. of his land to grow cannabis, indoors and/or outdoors. Herrington intends to sell his crop to another producer, preferably to make CBD oil, and expects the farm would create five new jobs in the region.

November is nothing but a memory now. For many cannabis-focused investors, that's a good thing. Most marijuana stocks again delivered dismal results last month.

When Alycia Walker worked as a publicist at an agency in downtown Toronto, she yearned to trade the towers and traffic for trees and tranquillity without giving up her marketing career.

“My husband and I were looking to get out of the city,” she says. “He owns his own landscaping company and we’ve been long-time cottagers in Muskoka, so we were always looking for an opportunity. I just honestly never thought it would come.”

Walker rejoiced when one of the agency’s clients, Muskoka Grown, needed a marketing manager a few hours north of the city, in cottage country. She and her husband have lived in the region for about a year now, and the self-proclaimed cottager says they’re part of a burgeoning community of former urbanites — thanks in part to the cannabis industry.

Canadian licensed producer Zenabis has increased its market share in the New Brunswick cannabis market since launching Re-Up, a lower-cost brand of flower and pre-rolls.

The Atholville, N.B.-based company has produced data indicating a 38 percent market share of sales in Cannabis NB stores across the province for the period concluding in October 2019. The number indicates a spike in sales of the brand, which rang in at 20 percent this past July.

Zenabis credits its bump in sales to the Re-Up brand, which the company hopes will give it a competitive edge against the cheaper prices offered on the unlicensed market and incentivize consumers who source their cannabis from illicit distributors to consider purchasing from the legal market.

The Canadian cannabis stocks we’ve weeded out have had an average stock price return of 87% year to date

The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador said on Wednesday they would not allow the sale of cannabis vapes, just weeks before the start of marijuana derivatives sales, as concerns linger about a possible connection between the vaping products and severe lung disease

“We will not be selling vaping products on January 1,” Fabrice Giguère, a spokesman for the Société québécoise du cannabis, which is responsible for marijuana sales in the province, said by email, adding the province had not officially announced its stance.

All of Quebec’s legal cannabis stores are run by the provincial government, while Newfoundland and Labrador’s stores are private.

The marijuana stock market has definitely seen better days than those of the past few months. At that time, many companies have seen their values drop down quite substantially. This is not to say that some pot stocks have not witnessed growth in that time. Many of the most unknown companies in the industry have been able to escape the high levels of volatility. These mid and small-cap pot stocks have a much easier time putting through innovation due to the lack of a major bureaucracy that comes with size.

Cannabis products have been legal in Canada for a year now. In 2018, Canada legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. This year, Canada included edibles, beverages, topicals, and concentrates in the second phase of legalization. Deloitte estimates the cannabis beverage market could be worth 529 million Canadian dollars annually in Canada.

LYF Food Technologies Inc., a mass food manufacturer in Canada, is on the verge of receiving a licence to produce cannabis edibles.

The company applied for the licence in February and hopes to have a facility ready in two weeks to start pumping out pot products.

“Our team has worked tirelessly over the last two years to bring this dream to reality, and can now confidently say we are in the last steps of the Health Canada licensing process,” read a statement from Matthew Amado, President and co-founder of LYF.