During the last year, leading Canadian broker-dealers have been downgrading Canadian Licensed Producers’ (LPs) rating on average. The banks have also been lowering price targets for Canadian LPs and we consider this to be a bearish indicator. (Click here for full article)

Although we continue to hope to see a change in trend with rating and price target that are assigned to leading Canadian and United States (US) cannabis operators, the trend has continued so far this year. 

A look at the current state of global cannabis reform.

Most of the world has decriminalized cannabis, and many nations have implemented regulated cannabis industries. Medical marijuana is often the precursor to personal-use cannabis legislation because it’s easier for cannabis-wary thinkers to consider weed as medicine than recreation. 

Medical marijuana advocates are primarily responsible for the growing accessibility of cannabis in certain regions in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. However, most Asian countries continue to uphold cannabis prohibition, even for medical use.

Keep reading to discover the legal status of medical marijuana around the world. 

Forget everything you learned about investing in the past year.

Last January, when meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. and BlackBerry Ltd. were soaring, retail traders who swapped investing ideas on Reddit message boards were talked about as the future of finance. Unprofitable growth stocks were some of the hottest investments to own, especially in the tech sector. And the more money a company lost, the more likely its stock would soar.

Resource companies, meanwhile, were dead in the water because investors had embraced ESG principles.

In Canada, pediatric ED visits due to cannabis exposure significantly increased after recreational cannabis was legalized, according to recent data. The website for the government of Canada states that the country legalized sales of fresh cannabis, dried cannabis, cannabis oil, cannabis seeds and cannabis plants in 2018. One year later, the sale of edible cannabis products, cannabis extracts and cannabis topicals was also legalized.

While the U.S. pot growers had an amazing 2021, dark clouds loomed over their Canadian counterparts.

Marijuana stocks flatlined last year, making investors skeptical about them now. The sell-off was mostly driven by market sentiments related to the lack of positive movements in U.S. legalization reforms. If you overlook the overall stock performance, the U.S. cannabis companies had an excellent year, growing revenue at an outstanding rate. Most of them were even profitable. 

Man from Canada nabbed after reportedly trying to bring 40 kilograms of marijuana into country.

A man from Canada was taken into custody at the Edinburgh Airport after border officers found him with about 40 kilograms of cannabis on Jan. 22.

Star Buds Cannabis Co. Granted Regulatory Approvals to Operate in Fourth Canadian Province with the Company's 13th Store in Canada

Christmas came early for legal cannabis stakeholders in Ontario. Late 2021 statistics showed that for the first time since the 2018 legalization, sales in the province’s legal cannabis market overtook those of the illicit cannabis market.

Meanwhile, consumers who helped the province’s cannabis regulator, the Ontario Cannabis Store, reach this milestone are being left in the dust. Canada’s market has been structured in a way that sows corporate seeds, overseeing a proliferation of conglomerates with fun-sounding names that mask less-fun-sounding parent companies looking to make a quick buck (or billion) off bud. 

Surely it’s not beyond the ability of Health Canada to come up with a users’ guide that could be handed out at cannabis stores.

Since the use of cannabis was legalized in 2018, the number of drivers injured while testing positive for the drug has more than doubled.

Specifically, the proportion of injured drivers who had blood concentrations above the legal limit stood at 3.8 per cent in 2018. By 2020 that number had risen to 8.6 per cent. The greatest increase was in drivers over 50 years of age.

While more recent figures aren’t available, such a dramatic surge in just two years suggests an ongoing trend.