Ever since Canada became the first major country to legalize marijuana for adults a year ago, other nations have been paying attention.

The small South American nation of Uruguay was the first to legalize marijuana for adults. New Zealand, Luxembourg and Mexico are among those that have looked to Canada for guidance or lessons, while Russia has chastised it for its “barefaced” flouting of international anti-drug treaties.

Here’s a look at how Canada’s experiment is playing out internationally and where the next attempts at legalization are coming:

New regulations for cannabis edibles and topicals come into effect on Oct. 17, with products expected to reach store shelves in December

Here’s what consumers and parents need to know

“Edibles” is the umbrella term for cannabis-infused products, which can include beverages, cotton candy, dissolvable strips, gummy candies or baked goods. And topicals are products which can include lotions, balms, and oils absorbed through the skin for relief of pain or inflammation, according to Leafly.

It was the advice given many times to maiden pot users, emboldened by Canadian legalization to take their first tokes over the past year:

“Start low and go slow.”

But that urging for baptismal moderation on an individual level — particularly regarding concentrations and consumption of the plant’s psychoactive THC component — could easily pass as a description of the entire cannabis rollout.

As the country approaches the first anniversary of legal weed on Oct. 17, a look back reveals that many important elements of the deployment appeared to lurch and stagger over their first steps.

The Quebec government says it will appeal a decision invalidating parts of Quebec's cannabis law that prohibited home cultivation.

On Sept. 3, Quebec Superior Court Justice Manon Lavoie ruled Quebec's legislation infringed upon the jurisdiction of the federal government, which has sole responsibility for legislating on criminal matters.

The judge ruled unconstitutional the sections of the Quebec Cannabis Regulation Act prohibiting the possession and the cultivation for personal purposes of cannabis plants.

Federal law allows Canadian citizens to grow up to four cannabis plants at home, but Quebec chose in June 2018 to legislate against home cultivation.

It hasn't taken too long for the legal marijuana industry to transform itself into a big-money business. There's no doubt that tens of billions of dollars' worth of illicit pot sales are ongoing behind the scenes globally, but the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada last year, along with 33 U.S. states, to some varied degree, led to $10.9 billion in legal weed sales worldwide in 2018. By the end of the upcoming decade, we could be talking about $50 billion, $100 billion, or even $200 billion in annual worldwide legal sales.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of cannabis legalization in this country, it’s important to reflect on the bumpy road we’ve encountered since making what might be considered one of the largest social policy changes in Canadian history.

Large players have gobbled smaller rivals and are dominating Canada’s legal cannabis industry, but small firms may be about to have their day in the sun.

Many entrepreneurs believe that when Canada legalizes cannabis edibles, drinks, concentrates and topicals in October, benefits will flow to smaller ventures.

Deloitte estimates in a recent report that the second wave of cannabis legalization, or Cannabis 2.0, will open a $2.7 billion market in Canada, with cannabis-extract-based products, including edibles, accounting for about $1.6 billion.

Cannabis and real estate go together like…

Well, actually they do because, as the Oct. 17 anniversary of recreational cannabis legalization nears, many real estate issues regarding the sale, use and growing of cannabis have arisen again, such as smoking or growing it in condos, the location of legal (or illegal) dispensaries and, of course, the smell.

Zoocasa has now published the results of their national Canadian cannabis and real estate sentiment survey. Some of the interesting findings include: