Tilray, a global leader in medical cannabis research and production, today announced that it has become the first medical cannabis producer in North America to be GMP certified in accordance with the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. As North America’s only GMP certified medical cannabis producer, Tilray is uniquely positioned to expand distribution of its pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis products to patients, physicians, pharmacies, hospitals and researchers in new markets around the world.

Marijuana stocks have been on a tear recently.

Shares of Cannabis Science have soared more than 870% since the start of October. Meanwhile, Canopy Growth's increased more than 300% during the same period, transforming the company into a more than $900 million enterprise.

However, there have also been some disappointments. Arena Pharmaceutical's share price is down more than 25% since October began.

A new report estimates consumers spent $53.3 billion on cannabis in North America last year.

The first-of-its-kind analysis, compiled by ArcView Market Research, spans legal, medical and illegal marijuana markets across both the United States and Canada. At around $46 billion, the illegal market constituted 87 percent of marijuana sales in 2016 (a decrease from 90 percent in 2015), dwarfing both medical and legal sales.

The marijuana investment and research firm provided a 25-page executive summary of its fifth annual State of Legal Marijuana Markets to The Huffington Post Tuesday, ahead of the full report’s release in February.

Medical marijuana can be defined as the use of cannabis for treatment of certain ailments. It can be utilized for medicinal uses; however, the complete safety and efficacy profiling is till unavailable. Medical marijuana is available in various forms such as flower or concentrates, which is extracted in the form of oils, extracts or edibles. Packaging medical marijuana is a growing business and many companies offer holistic solutions to medical marijuana manufacturers.

The key packaging modes available in the market include:

Many people are proud of their drug use. For many it can define who they are in their own mind for a period of their life. This is perhaps more true for cannabis users that for any other drug.

Not only does it have the oldest established media empire of any illicit drug (think High Times) but seeing as it is regarded and one of the safest drugs is common use many people, including the mass media regard it use a less of a mortal sin than the use of cocaine or heroin for example.

The cannabis industry has been trending lower since the election with market sentiment in negative territory following the appointment of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General.

The recent pullback has been associated with weaker-than-average trading volume and we are monitoring this trend on an industry-wide and a company-by-company basis. The lighter trading volume has had a significant affect on cannabis stocks as the average stock spread has expanded (difference between a stock’s buy and sell price) and we continue to monitor this trend closely.