After hiding in the shadows for decades, the cannabis movement is experiencing a long-overdue coming-out party. Following the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada, and the ongoing push to legalize at the state level in the U.S. and in various countries around the world, the potential for legal marijuana is truly budding.

Projections by various sources suggest that legal marijuana could become, at minimum, a $50 billion a year industry (globally) by 2029, with peak sales potential of as much as $166 billion. That's not a dollar figure Wall Street and investors will easily overlook.

The bigger the cannabis industry in the U.S. becomes, the more competition will make its way onto the equity markets. This week, we saw another key marijuana company begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). Harborside Inc(CNSX:HBOR) completed a reverse takeover of FLRish, Inc. and Lineage Grow Company Ltd. in order to go public.

However, unlike many pot stocks that begin trading, Harborside isn’t a new company that needs to grow into a big company, as it already has a couple of big locations in California that have been key to its growth.

Cannabis legalization has become a trending topic among many country's agendas as the medical applications continue to spread. Extensive clinical trials have reached conclusions that cannabis can be used effectively to a variety of medically diagnosed conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. However, many countries still do not see cannabis as an approved medicinal treatment despite positive data from studies. On the other hand, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex, which is used to treat epilepsy among children. Epidiolex is the first cannabis-derived drug to ever be approved by the FDA.

Few industries have been kicking "bud" and taking names quite like legal cannabis has in recent quarters. With Wall Street calling for up to $75 billion in global sales by 2030 (up from $12.2 billion in 2018), perhaps it's no surprise that marijuana stocks are among the market's top performers over the past couple of years.

THC Global’s (ASX: THC) wholly-owned subsidiary Canndeo has achieved a major milestone by securing a manufacturing licence to produce cannabis extracts and tinctures in Australia.

The Australian Office of Drug Control granted the licence to Canndeo, which now completes THC’s vertical integration strategy to cultivate its own cannabis strains, harvest and process the material to produce its own cannabis-based products for Australian and international markets.

“We are very pleased to be granted a manufacture licence, which now completes our ‘farm to pharma’ model,” THC chairman Steven Xu said.

Cannabis continues making progress in the U.S. as Illinois recently passed into law a bill that will see it become the 11th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use — and more states that are likely to do the same. Both New York and New Jersey have shown an interest in legalizing cannabis, although the only question is when.

The growth in the U.S. markets is going to create many opportunities for cannabis stocks once marijuana becomes legal federally, and here are three that might be the best buys today:

Canopy Growth Corp. is assessing ways to raise non-equity financing as the world’s largest cannabis company seeks to expand and become profitable, according to its new chief financial officer.

“We’re going through a process of just digesting the multiple options that we have in front of us, and comparing that to our business plans over the next few years,” Mike Lee said in an interview. “We’re trying to be smart about it and build a capability that can ramp up as we put more fixed assets in place.”

Imagine believing in a company so much that you opt to forgo hard-earned pay until the business reaches its profit goals? And then imagine that belief is matched by confidence the goal will be achieved.

For Andrew Grieve, CEO at Zenabis Global Inc.—a subsidiary of Sun Pharm Investments Ltd. and a Canadian licensed cultivator of medical and recreational cannabis—that’s reality.

Texas legalizes hemp and CBD processing, poised to take advantage of U.S. cultivation demand

Cannabis stocks slipped on Tuesday, with broader losses across North American markets. The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks the top cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, was down 1.5% to 247.2 points by Tuesday's close. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF was down 1.6% to C$19.15. The OTCQX Cannabis Index was down 1.2% at 761.3 points.

Buds

Despite the trend of the sector, a number of stocks were on the rise on Tuesday.