To be blunt, marijuana stocks are on fire. Following the passage of the Cannabis Act in Canada this past June, and the official kickoff of recreational weed sales on Oct. 17, 2018, the cannabis industry is now viewed as a legitimate business model that's here to stay. With sales projected to be in the tens of billions of dollars globally within the next decade, it's simply a matter of trying to figure out where those dollars might end up. As a result, pot stocks throughout the industry have soared.

It’s been nearly half a year since Canada legalized and began regulating sales of recreational cannabis.

During that time, Statistics Canada has monitored spending on the drug, and last Friday (March 1), shared its latest results.

“Household spending on cannabis totalled $5.9 billion (in nominal terms) in the fourth quarter, with illegal cannabis accounting for $4.7 billion and legal cannabis $1.2 billion,” reads a Statistics Canada summary of the data. “Cannabis accounted for 0.5% of total household spending, and non-medical cannabis accounted for 11.2% of spending on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis in the fourth quarter.”

On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, I reported on troubling economic growth rates that show Canada's economy heading towards a recession.

Former Vancouver Canuck Andrew Alberts says NHL alumni are hopeful a new clinical study will find cannabinoids can help treat post-concussion neurological problems.

Aurora Cannabis stock was rising sharply on Tuesday, up more than 9% following a bullish call from Cowen & Co.

Marijuana is going corporate.

Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. is the latest big company to explore the cannabis market, joining beverage makers like Molson Coors and Heineken. Other big companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch and Guinness brewer Diageo haven‘t acted yet, but have said they‘re watching closely as the market for marijuana and its extracts evolves.

Late Monday, Cronos Group confirmed talks with Altria about a possible investment. Altria, based in Richmond, Virginia, owns Philip Morris USA, the largest cigarette maker in the United States.

Shares of Cronos Group Inc., based in Toronto, rose 6 percent Tuesday.

As Canadian provinces begin to see their first private licensed cannabis stores, retail chains and dispensaries in the United States have entered a new phase of maturity. These two trends may be prompting major producers to look into getting into the retail market in order to sell product directly to consumers, which could potentially trigger some fresh deal action this year.

For larger growers, the benefits to this vertical integration are obvious. Besides cost savings and convenience, a producer would be able to exercise more quality control and a better understanding of market conditions. This is not possible in all jurisdictions, of course, as provincial governments in Nova Scotia and Quebec run their own retail stores, making this type of integration impossible.

President Trump routinely waves his fist at alleged unfair trade practices, including at the hands of our good neighbor Canada. But what about playing fields that are uneven because the U.S. government makes them so? Witness the cannabis industry. It’s enjoying explosive growth worldwide, but Canadians are running away with the profits because Washington has shackled their American competitors.

It’s not that Americans are unacquainted with cannabis in all its forms. Cannabis is a family of flowering plants that includes both marijuana, which produces a high, and hemp, which does not. Most states have relaxed their marijuana laws to various extents. Ten states and the District of Columbia have made pot fully legal.

Pre-October, with the country moving toward cannabis legalization, police and lawyers geared up for what was expected to be a rash of impaired driving offences related to the drug.

Instead — in Regina, at least — crickets.

“I don’t have numbers, but I’ll use the word ‘low,’ ” Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray said recently at a Board of Police Commissioners meeting when questioned by reporters on the issue. “We have not laid a lot of (cannabis-related) impaired driving charges. In fact, I don’t think we’ve laid any impaired driving charges as a result of cannabis.”

City police spokesman Les Parker confirmed it, stating the current numbers for cannabis-related impaired driving are “zero, unless other charges are mislabeled.”

Wall Street is seeing green.

Analysts at Cowen note the U.S. cannabis market could rocket to $16 billion by 2025.  

Analysts at Piper Jaffray believe we could be looking at a global market value of between $250 billion to $500 billion a year.  “We believe the long-term growth can be significant — both from transitioning illicit trade to legal sales, medical sales, and from transitioning sales in health (and) wellness categories to CBD-infused products,” said the analysts, as quoted by MarketWatch. 

As the boom just begins, three of the best cannabis stocks to own include the following: