With marijuana legalization approaching, the RCMP is rolling out a new introductory training course for police officers across the country.

The in-person training will inform officers about the symptoms of drug impairment on drivers, “with a special emphasis on cannabis,” and includes information on impaired driving laws. The RCMP said the curriculum was developed alongside other Canadian police services.

The program, called “Introduction to Drug-Impaired Driving” will be required for law enforcement officers in addition to the preexisting standard field sobriety test training. Canada Border Service Agency officers will also be receiving the training.

It used to be taboo.

Now, cannabis is poised to take 2018 by storm.

Only a few years ago, marijuana was seen as a ‘’gateway drug’’.

Flash forward to today: cannabis is a huge business, one that could be worth $25 billion in the U.S. alone by 2020, and analysts expect demand to skyrocket as new laws are passed and social attitudes change.

Bruce Linton, founder and CEO of Canada’s largest marijuana company, Canopy Growth Corporation, said that legalizing cannabis at the federal level in the US could result in fewer opioid and other addictive prescriptions.

The interview with CNBC’s Mad Money host, Jim Cramer, took place Thursday following Canopy Growth recently applying to become the first cannabis producer to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Linton explained that Canopy Growth has both a medical and recreational division and that on the recreational side; he expects that the company’s partnership with Constellation Brands will result in a new class of low-calorie beverages. He said that the possibilities within the medical division are still emerging.

Bacardi broker to launch new cannabis distribution company to represent Aphria products to retailers and regulators across the country.

The Canadian arm of alcohol distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits LLC is entering the cannabis market by launching a marijuana-focused broker and partnering with licensed producer Aphria Inc.

The new company, Great North Distributors Inc., will represent Aphria products to retailers and regulators across the country, essentially acting as Aphria’s on-the-spot salesforce, the company said on Thursday.

“We’re going to be able to take a lot of the experience we have from the beverage alcohol market and translate it to the cannabis market,” said Doug Wieland, general manager of Southern Glazer’s Canadian division.

The Cannabis Act’s ban of certain cannabis products will leave a consumer void and allow the black market to thrive, the CEO of a Canadian cannabis company told a Canadian Senate hearing during testimony last week.

Josh Campbell is the head of dosist, a company that has released a disposable, dose-controlled cannabis pen that is selling like hotcakes in California. But in Canada, concentrates and edibles won’t be available for at least a year, and it’s not known not when a product like Campbell’s will be allowed.

Leafly spoke to Campbell after his testimony in front of the Senate’s Standing Committee von Social Affairs, Science, and Technology.

This niche product is probably more important than you realize to marijuana stocks.

Few industries have investors seeing green quite like legal marijuana. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, in partnership with BDS Analytics, the North American legal weed market grew by 33% in 2017 to $9.7 billion. A decade from now, we could be looking at more than $47 billion in annual North American sales.

Thomas George of investment forum Grizzle says that when it comes to the “green rush” of success that the marijuana industry is expecting in Canada, interested parties should be a little more circumspect about getting the same reception south of the border. In fact, the U.S. is far more divided over legalizing cannabis than we are in Canada, says George.

A new petition is demanding the government includes criminal justice reform in its legalization plans.

As Canada gets closer to legalizing recreational marijuana, drug policy advocates are fighting to ensure that criminal justice reform doesn’t get left behind. Now, a new petition is circulating from Cannabis Amnesty, a justice reform group that wants there to be more language addressing pardons for people with weed-related criminal records.

From niche sector to burgeoning industry, the list of marijuana stocks has veritably skyrocketed.

When it comes to cannabis, we’ve come a long way since former President Bill Clinton denied ever inhaling. With the previous presidential administration’s frankness on the matter, marijuana has become more blasé. Naturally, marijuana stocks have also increased in popularity, where we have more choices today than was previously thought possible.

The cannabis stock market is growing at a very fast pace, which has been great for some investors who want this level of exposure to the market. One of the hidden secrets of the market is that there are very good investments to be made in the industry on ancillary markets dealing with the cannabis space.

The cannabis research firm ArcView has stated that the legal cannabis industry could potentially reach as much as 28% growth year on year through 2021. Between the next ten years, ArcView has stated that the market could potentially reach as much as $47 billion from where it currently stands at $9.7 billion. The sales have been difficult to ignore given how much they are increasing and how quickly as well.