Three years after Canada legalized cannabis, the industry appears ready for a reset. 

When midnight struck on Oct. 17, 2018, Canada became the first developed nation to allow the sale of cannabis for recreational purposes, and since then the industry has had its share of ups and downs. While billions of dollars worth of legal pot has been sold across thousands of licensed stores, helping to stamp out roughly half of the illicit market, it's also seen many cannabis companies cumulatively post billions of dollars in losses as market dynamics warped lofty expectations made in the early days of legalization. 

Future of Pot Market Just Got Brighter, & These 2 Pot Stocks Could Rise

Marijuana stock investors have benefited immensely from Canadian pot legalization, and that’s a relatively tiny market.

Think about what will happen when a huge economy legalizes cannabis. For pot stocks, that will most likely generate massive share-price growth.

Two marijuana companies in particular are poised to benefit from the possible German marijuana legalization: Canopy Growth Corp (NYSE:CGC) and Aurora Cannabis Inc (NASDAQ:ACB).

Canadian cannabis firm The Green Organic Dutchman (TGOD) is celebrating its first medical cannabis shipment to Australia.

In September last year, TGOD inked a distribution agreement with LeafCann for Australian and New Zealand medical cannabis markets, where LeafCann will be the exclusive supplier of the company’s products in both countries.

While the first products were expected to be available to Australian patients by the end of the first quarter of this year, that didn’t eventuate for whatever reasons – and it’s not hard to think of a few.

In addition to challenges posed by the pandemic, anything related to cannabis tends to get bogged down by red tape.

Still, TGOD seems very happy with the way things have turned out.

Navaya Inc., an innovative Quebec-based cannabis producer, today received from Health Canada its sales licence to sell dried cannabis products across Canada. The licence brings to fruition the goal set out by Navaya to deliver high yield, consistent quality cannabis, to all Canadians of legal age. The newly licensed producer will be launching its products this fall in Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) locations across the province of Quebec.

They are three Interior producers who use their own unique methods to make three kinds of cannabis.

And Sarah Ballantyne cannot keep it on the shelves at her locally owned and operated Spiritleaf Vernon location. Her customers want the best, and it looks like no one grows it better than those in the Thompson Okanagan region.

“It’s important to get the message out there that they’re doing such a good job with it,” Ballantyne says. “It’s definitely a different class of product compared to some of the stuff we’ve seen over and over again over the last three years. They’re really different, and I sell out almost every week of those products. I have waiting lists for them.”

Tilray, Inc. ("Tilray" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: TLRY; TSX: TLRY) announces the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Blair MacNeil as President, Tilray Canada. In his new role, Blair will drive Tilray’s next stage of growth in Canada and oversee sales, marketing, and operations across medical and adult-use cannabis businesses. Blair will report to Jim Meiers, who has been appointed to Chief Operations Officer, Tilray, Inc.

 Trent MacDonald, CFO of Hexo Corp (NASDAQ: HEXO), Niel Marotta, co-founder and CEO of Indiva Ltd (OTC: NDVAF) and Kevin McLaughlin, director at Centri Business Consulting, participated in a panel discussion of the ways early stage cannabis companies can translate their focused growth strategies into expanding market shares.

McLaughlin said the ability to expand cannabis product portfolios without overextending a young company is a critical balance for cannabis companies looking to gain market share.

“If you’re expanding into some of these other areas, there’s rising demand if we’re talking about edibles, beverages, candies, things like that. That area’s going to be 25% of the market in the next five years or so,” he said.

The legal Canadian cannabis industry is about to turn 3, but don’t expect to see a lot of celebration among retailers and producers.

Legal marijuana has not turned out to be the big money maker investors were promised, neither has it produced consistently good products. Every aspect of the cannabis supply chain is a struggle: paper-thin margins; oversaturated retail; limited product innovation; lack of manufacturing efficiencies; and low brand loyalty are just a few of many problems.

Valens Co. said Monday that it will enter the Quebec marketplace after signing a preliminary commitment with the provincial cannabis distributor there.

The Canadian manufacturer of cannabis products said that it executed a letter of intent with the Societe quebecoise du cannabis, a subsidiary of the government-owned Societe des alcools du Quebec, for the distribution of its cannabis products in the province.