Since the Farm Bill was signed in late December, clearing the way for states to take over hemp regulatory duties, much has transpired. Here’s a quick look at just 40 of the many major developments that have taken place recently as a result of federal hemp reforms—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

1. To date, more than 40 states have defined industrial hemp as distinct from marijuana and removed barriers to its production.

Cannabis stocks moved lower Wednesday, as investors scrutinized earnings from Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. and awaited a U.S. congressional committee vote next week on protecting banks that serve the sector.

Korey Bauer, Portfolio Manager of the Cannabis Growth Fund CANNX, -0.67% a mutual fund recently launched by Foothill Capital Management, said the market is likely taking a breather after a strong run-up.

“We’re up more than 50% for the year, so it’s not a surprise to see the market take a break,” he said.

According to the Cannabis Energy Report released by New Frontier Data last October, the production of legal cannabis is projected to consume 162 percent more energy by 2022.

“Based on the 16.4 million pounds of cannabis cultivated in 2017, the resulting electricity-based carbon emissions associated with that level of production was 1.8 million tons,” the report continued.

New Brunswick's largest licensed grower of marijuana has enlisted Canada's Smartest Kitchen in Charlottetown to develop a line of cannabis-infused chocolate for the edible market — due to be legalized in the fall.

The grower, Organigram, currently produces 36,000 kilograms of marijuana per year and plans to triple production by December.

"Most of the market doesn't like the thought of smoking," said Organigram's chief commercial officer Ray Gracewood.

Interest in the edible market

Customers have demonstrated a lot of interest in the edible market and are looking for something that's discreet, Gracewood said.

Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) signed a multi-year processing and extraction agreement HollyWeed Manufacturing & Extracts Inc. 

HollyWeed North Cannabis Inc. is the parent company of HollyWeed Manufacturing & Extracts Inc., which is a female-led, LGBTQ2-positive company based in British Columbia that operates several subsidiaries specializing in the growth, manufacturing, licensing, and production of cannabis and other pharmaceutical grade products.

The Government of Canada released its Budget 2019 on Tuesday, outlining their plans for spending in the coming year. While this year’s version offered incentives to first-time homebuyers, relaxed interest rates for student loans, and other new investment/spending programs, a series of updates were issued for the regime that controls cannabis taxation.

The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (TSX:HMMJ) completed its quarterly rebalance and updated investors on its new holdings on Tuesday (March 19).

With these new additions, Horizons ETFs Management confirmed the ETF now has 59 cannabis stocks in its holding list.

Horizons ETFs indicated that, as of March 15, the ETF had netted a return of 58.95 percent over a year-to-date period.

Here is a list of the stocks added to HMMJ’s portfolio:

Right now, northern Ontario's first cannabis store is part high end retail outlet, part construction site.

Crews are busy getting the Highlife on Marcus Drive in Sudbury ready to open to customers on April 1. Company spokesperson Eddie Grinberg says they expect to hire as many as 30 people, with a few extra for the first few weeks when long lines are expected.

Highlife already has 17 stores in southern Ontario, but this New Sudbury location in an old shoe store near the Silver City movie theatres will be the first licensed to sell cannabis, rather than just smoking accessories.

"We never thought it would be in Sudbury," Grinberg says.

Highlife put its name into the cannabis license lottery held in January, but it didn't get pulled.

If you're looking for one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet, you've found it with legal marijuana. It has generated less than $10 billion in annual sales worldwide in 2017, but investment bank Cowen Group is calling for up to $75 billion in global sales by 2030. For those of you keeping score at home, that's a compound annual growth rate of about 17% for 13 years. Because the industry is still relatively nascent, it means there's a lot of market share up for grabs on the recreational and medical side of the equation. This has meant that growers have been particularly aggressive expanding their production capacity organically, through partnerships, or by acquisition.

The Government of Saskatchewan is banking on pot sales to make a small contribution to this year's bottom line.

The 2019-20 budget estimates the province will make $5 million this year, the first full year of legalization.

The province expects PST on pot sales will bring in $2 million while federal excise tax is expected to account for $3 million.

For the province to generate $2 million in PST, total pot sales would need to equal $33.3 million. in the first three months of legalization, Saskatchewan trailed the rest of the country in sales, bringing in only $2.5 million.

Like many jurisdictions, Saskatchewan marijuana sales were hindered by supply problems in the first months of legalization, with many stores closed due to lack of product.