The cannabis industry has been a roller coaster. Last year, several pot stocks doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in value. Billions in market value accrued in a matter of months. Countless millionaires were minted.

This year has been a different story, however. Both large and small, marijuana stocks have struggled. Some well-respected companies have seen their share prices slashed in half.

Following the first round of legalization in Canada last October, the insurance appetite around cannabis has resulted in what some characterize as a tight marketplace. In fact, one expert calls it “difficult” because of the limited players in the market, many of whom are using the same capacity.

The anniversary of Canada’s recreational cannabis legalization arrives Oct. 17, just days before the federal election. Legalization was a Liberal campaign promise from the last election, so it’s timely to review how it’s worked out.

Your boss, your parents and even you will soon be able to measure how high you are, now that the University of British Columbia and Cannabix Technologies Inc. have partnered to develop a portable cannabis breathalyzer.

The THC Breath Analyzer will be a “low-cost portable breathalyzer device that would be ideally suited for workplace, parental and personal use testing.”

The machine probably won’t meet police standards, as a Cannabix release notes “the professional needs of law enforcement users (use at police stations and court acceptance) will likely differ from the needs of employers and civilian users.”

This year has been a rollercoaster ride for marijuana stocks, and investors have their reservations about pot stocks. I would not be surprised if you have stepped away from cannabis-related stocks after the kind of year the legal weed industry had so far. At the same time, it could be an exciting year to get back to it.

The recent round of sell-offs is fresh in the minds of investors. I still feel you have plenty of opportunities to consider if you’re willing to give some weed stocks a good look again.

There is a chance that weed stocks can fight their way back up again to make it big. Today I am going to talk about three marijuana company stocks that you should consider buying before they explode.

When the histories of the cannabis law reform movement are written, the advent of the Internet will occupy a lot of space. If the Internet had never been created, it would be hard to imagine the success of the movement over the last 2 decades. There’s no doubt some progress would have been made; after all, activists were active long before the World Wide Web helped them spread information and organize. But the speed and volume of victories could not have been accomplished without this one very powerful tool.

New research points to a possible link between cannabis use and higher levels of stress and anxiety, conditions people often treat precisely with marijuana, as well as inflammation.

Published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, the study comprising Canadian and Australian scientists found that long-term marijuana users “showed higher neuroimmune activation or translocator protein levels.”

“Higher levels of this protein were linked with stress and anxiety and also with higher levels of an inflammatory marker in the blood of cannabis users,” the researchers said.

For some, it might mean feeling a little uneasy when matched with an unknown entity that catches them off guard when they least expect it, or a looming dread of a weekly editorial meeting that keeps them from wanting to get out of bed. Hey, we’ve been there. There are other people, however, who have an irrational, crippling fear (otherwise known as a phobia) of something that hinders their lives with such ferocity that they will do everything in their power to maintain a safe distance.

Marijuana stocks have been absolutely slaughtered since mid-April. Sure, various geopolitical and economic factors have contributed to equity markets slowing down, but most top marijuana companies have underperformed the broader market.

Despite this catastrophic performance, however, there might be hope for pot firms yet. In particular, two companies worth paying attention to over the next few months are Canopy Growth Corp (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) and CannTrust Holdings Inc (TSX:TRST)(NYSE:CTST).