Of all the stories gaining press in 2019, perhaps none will prove more important or impact more American lives and pocketbooks than the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.

American cannabis markets get a lot of attention from investors, and deservedly so.

As far as legal markets go, the various U.S. states constitute the largest in the world, and they'll continue to for years.

After all, the legal marijuana market in California alone is far bigger than the even the vast Canadian market will ever be. Multi-state operators (MSOs) are learning how to build operations and brands across the United States, despite patchwork legalization.

These ingenious pioneers will define the American cannabis market of tomorrow; they'll make millionaires of U.S. cannabis investors, too.

I'm talking market dominance here.

Still… no one can afford to count out the Canadian-licensed producers. They have something that American MSOs don't.

Aurora Cannabis  (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB) may still be in the second spot for top cannabis producer in Canada, but lately analysts and investors haven’t been so sure about the stock. The good news has gone so far up and down that, honestly, I think it’s spooked investors.

So, let’s take a good look at what’s really going on with Aurora right now.

After more than 150 years of brewing beer, Canada’s oldest independent beer company, Moosehead, is preparing to venture into the cannabis beverage market.

Moosehead Breweries Limited and Sproutly Canada Inc. have entered into an agreement to form an exclusive joint venture to develop and produce non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beverages.

The drinks will be manufactured using Sproutly’s proprietary water-soluble cannabinoid technology, Infuz2O , which allows for more efficient bioavailability.

About a year ago, Aphria Inc. (TSX:APHA)(NYSE:APHA) was trading at a premium until disaster struck: then all hell broke loose.

The cannabis producer has been hounded by controversies after controversies.

Frankly, the entire cannabis sector and weed stocks are hyper-volatile. But Aphria’s case is the most baffling.

Do you focus primarily on the positive side of things or the negative? How you answer that question will probably determine what you make of the stock performances of Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Green Thumb Industries (NASDAQOTH:GTBIF) so far this year.

Cronos and Green Thumb Industries (GTI) have delivered impressive year-to-date gains. But both marijuana stocks have also given up even bigger gains and are well off their highs from earlier in 2019. Which stock is the better pick for long-term investors now? Here's what you need to know about Cronos and GTI.

Cannabis is growing the U.S. and Canadian economies as the push for decriminalization moves forward. 

In fact, as American industries go, its 250,000+ employees far surpassed the 52,300 coal miners in the USA in 2018. That number is expected to grow to 330,000 by 2022, and cannabis lobbyist group the Marijuana Policy Project reportsnearly every state has some sort of pro-marijuana legislation at some stage of approval moving toward the 2020 election.

Let's face it: Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) and Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC) are pretty much in a league of their own among marijuana stocks. They have the biggest market caps, the highest production capacities, and the most significant international operations.

Which smaller Canadian marijuana stock has the best shot at joining the ranks with these top-tier players? By smaller, I'm referring to small-cap stocks with market caps of less than $2 billion, which excludes Cronos Group and Tilray from consideration.

The three obvious candidates are Aphria (NYSE: APHA), Organigram (NASDAQ: OGI), and HEXO (NYSEMKT: HEXO). Here's why these companies seem to have the best chances of joining Aurora and Canopy at the top of the pack.

We all remember cannabis stocks last summer. The headlines were everywhere, so even if you weren’t really into investing, you still knew that these stocks were hot. After remaining relatively stagnant for years in some cases, suddenly legalization was coming and people were buying up these stocks like they were going out of style.

But then there was that severe drop, seen on the graph below. Across the board, legalization came and went and shares plummeted during October and December. It looks like most stocks have begun to rebound at least a bit, if not to those all-time highs. So, will the cannabis industry see another red-hot summer?

Waterloo Regional Police are warning members of the public to be aware of a street drug that looks just like cannabis, but actually contains powerful opioids.