The rapidly growing marijuana industry — legal to some degree in much of the country — is providing a still-small but potentially fertile bed of opportunity for companies in Wisconsin and other states where the drug remains outlawed.

A few firms here have actively positioned themselves as suppliers to pot growers and processors, viewing the sector as a logical extension of markets they already serve.

And some are selling to marijuana companies — hundreds have sprouted in states such as Colorado and Washington — but don't want to speak publicly about it.

It appears the legal pot industry in Colorado is still experiencing some growing pains surrounding its use of pesticides.

As we enter what could arguably be described as marijuana's most important year, the vast majority of momentum behind this currently illicit drug remains positive.

Marijuana's undeniable momentum
Over a two-decade span, nearly two dozen states have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, providing a new treatment pathway to alleviate symptoms associated with certain types of cancers and glaucoma. The list of diseases marijuana can be prescribed for varies from state to state, but terminal cancers and glaucoma are among the most consistent ailments medical marijuana is approved to treat.

It is still way too early to put any serious money behind the fast-growing marijuana industries, but the potential is certainly there, and worth watching.

“Right now it's a basically a penny-stock industry in its infancy, but it will grow geometrically unless the federal government decides to enforce federal laws,” said Paul Schatz, president of Heritage Capital.

So far, 40 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana in some form, and four states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. But those state laws are still in technical violation of federal laws, which deem most marijuana distribution and use illegal.

I don't often use superlatives, but it's easy to say that 2016 will be the most significant year yet in the battle to repeal marijuana prohibition in the United States.

Up until now, the two biggest years were 1996, when California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, and 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older.

2016 will likely comprise a cornucopia of cannabis policy advances, which I'll enumerate in the form of predictions.

Federal Policies

• Denver nonprofit Cannabis Can gave out 1,000 pre-rolled marijuana joints to the homeless on Christmas Eve
• The organization also passed out flyers and business cards with more information about Cannabis Can in hopes that people would donate
• The organization plans to use donations to buy several RVs to provide restrooms and showers for those in need
• The nonprofit organization's goal is to use marijuana for good and to bring people together through the drug to make a difference
• It is illegal to smoke marijuana in public in Denver, but it can be given as a gift and a person can carry up to one once at a time 

Snoop Dogg has his own line of marijuana. So does Willie Nelson. Melissa Etheridge has a marijuana-infused wine.

As the fast-growing marijuana industry emerges from the black market and starts looking like a mainstream industry, there's a scramble to brand and trademark pot products.

The celebrity endorsements are just the latest attempt to add cachet to a line of weed. Snoop Dogg calls his eight strains of weed "Dank From the Doggfather Himself." Nelson's yet-to-be-released line says the pot is "born of the awed memories of musicians who visited Willie's bus after a show."

This is the great indoors, the place where you can stand at the end of a long metal table, stare straight ahead to its opposite end some 75 metres away and you will be lost in a mighty greenness.

You will see thousands of familiar jagged-edged leaves reaching up to the lights inside Alberta’s largest grow-op. Seconds later, your mind taps into a stash of marijuana gag lines, from this facility being a “joint venture” to “your staff room must be well-stocked with Doritos.”

A north Italy-based ice cream parlour in the small resort town of Alassio – which is seven square miles with a population of approximately 11,000 – hopes to begin selling its Bob Marley-inspired hemp treats before year end.

The parlour teamed with the Canapa Ligura organisation – best known for promoting awareness of the health benefits associated with hemp – to create the ice cream flavour as a tribute to the late reggae icon.

Hemp is a variant of the cannabis sativa or ganja plant, and is mainly used for making fibres and textiles. It is also refined into products such as seed foods, oil, wax, resin, rope, pulp, paper, and fuel.

The velocity and breadth of growth in the marijuana industry will, for the most part, be determined by the pace of state and, eventually, national legalization.

Eventual rescheduling or de-listing of marijuana as a federally prohibited drug will hopefully lead to consistent and uniform national regulation and taxing authorizations that will ultimately change the structural and economic landscape of the Cannabis Industry.

A statistical analysis of current sales trends is a useful tool to understand a newly liberated consumer base and allows us to make certain reasonable projections for subsequent growth rates. But such analysis, in a holistic sense, is somewhat contingent upon the direction of future political and legal reforms.