Marijuana stocks, for the most part, have been outstanding growth vehicles for investors this year. Despite Canada's raging battle with black-market sales and the high level of uncertainty surrounding America's future policy on the drug, investors have been piling into these stocks with abandon in 2019.

Acreage shareholder plans to vote against ‘unbelievably lopsided’ Canopy deal

Marcato Capital Management, which owns about three per cent of U.S. cannabis operator Acreage Holdings, plans to vote against the company’s proposed deal with Canadian marijuana giant Canopy Growth, describing the unique tie-up as a “value destructive transaction and not in the best interests of shareholders.” Marcato Capital, which has US$438.3 million in disclosed holdings, said the US$3.4 billion valuation announced at the time is “substantially lower” than Acreage’s fair value based on the present value of the U.S. company’s future cash flows.

For Olds, a town that lost some of its oil and gas lustre since the price of crude swooned four years ago, it’s the welcome smell of money.

It’s hard to say the Sundial Growers cannabis production facility has changed the visible face of the town of 9,200 an hour’s drive north of Calgary.

The grow operation’s grey, low-slung rows of modular structures don’t stand out from neighbouring agricultural plants that make up the town’s industrial southeast edge.

But there’s no doubting the economic buzz its operators say will only grow dramatically along with the leafy, aromatic harvests in the coming months.

“This is an industry where you hear stories about people working on next-level things… We’ve stripped it back to the basics,” says Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD, an Ontario-based licensed producer and distributor of cannabis and cannabis oil. “We are growing lots of cannabis, and very good cannabis. Without cannabis, after all, there is no cannabis industry.”

Cannabis stocks were mostly lower Monday, with market leader Canopy Growth Corp. under pressure from an activist shareholder that said it would vote against a key deal aimed at securing Canopy a foothold in the U.S.

Investors betting on marijuana stocks got some disappointing news out of Canada last week.

Statistics Canada reported that Canadian marijuana retail sales declined by 7% in February compared to January.

On the surface, that decline may seem troubling, but it’s not actually as bad as it seems. There is plenty of demand for Canadian marijuana. Unfortunately, there is not nearly enough supply to meet that demand. As a result, Canadian producers are in high demand, a dynamic that bodes well for marijuana stocks.

For Toronto condo developer Options for Homes, the term “family friendly” has a very specific meaning—no smoking or growing weed.

The non-profit developer is currently building a 22-storey tower north of downtown called The Humber, named after the river nearby it. When completed it is billing itself as the first smoke-free condo in the Greater Toronto Area.

While in the planning stages, Options surveyed 7,000 of its potential purchasers about a smoke-less policy—75 percent said they would be more likely to buy a condo in a smoke-free building, meaning a ban on smoking both weed and tobacco. But Options decided on a compromise—it will allow vaping cannabis and nicotine in its suites, but not in common areas.

The marijuana stock market has been quite heavily fueled by companies that produce recreational cannabis for some time now. These companies have been working to put out large quantities of the substance, sometimes ranging in the hundreds of thousands of kilograms. For this reason, we have seen a decline in the amount that believes the marijuana industry may see a supply shortage, but many factors still remain up in the air. For now, it seems as though the marijuana stock market is riding high as we continue to traverse the future of the industry.

The owner of a London cannabis retail store that still isn’t open has been penalized $50,000 by the province’s pot regulator.

An Ontario numbered company behind Tweed, located at 1025 Wellington Rd. S, is one of seven store owners forfeiting an additional $25,000 to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for failing to be in business by April 30, a spokesperson for the regulator confirmed.

Eleven owners previously had $25,000 drawn from their letters of credit submitted to the AGCO — a condition for applying to open a marijuana retail outlet — for not opening by mid-April.

Investors who bought HEXO (TSX:HEXO) near the end of December have more than doubled their money.

The broad-based rally in the cannabis sector to start 2019 has people wondering if they should take profits in their pot positions or add more of HEXO and other marijuana stocks to their portfolios.

Let’s take a look at the current situation to see if HEXO deserves to be on your buy list today.