Investors in Village Farms International Inc.(TSX:VFF) saw a nice 20.39% rally in the stock price on Monday as the greenhouse operator and new cannabis grower released some welcome news of desired progress and announced new listing plans.

Why did the stock rally that much?

Village Farms updated the market that its Pure Sunfarms joint venture with Emerald Health Therapeutics has completed the conversion of a 1.1million square foot green house into cannabis production and has since made an application to Health Canada for production licensing.

Quebec consumes a lot of weed, in news that isn't surprising to most Quebecers. Jean-François Bergeron, president of the Société Québécoise Du Cannabis, reports that the SQDC has made over $40 billion in profits, which amounts to about 35% of legal cannabis in Canada by weight. By comparison, Quebec represents a little over 20% of the Canadian population.

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With the legalization of recreational marijuana, more needs to be done to warn people of the health risks, including psychosis, a speaker told insurance claims professionals Tuesday.

“One of the things I am most disappointed about is that, in the communication around cannabis, we tend not to have really communicated the fact that – particularly if you are younger – there is a certain percentage of the population that has a genetic predisposition to psychosis if they take cannabis,” said Paula Allen, vice president of research and integrative solutions for Morneau Shepell Inc., a Toronto-based consulting firm that provides employee assistance programs.

A new report by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that up to one-third of pregnant women believe it is safe to ingest cannabis during pregnancy.

The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, pored over data from six U.S. studies and found that some women considered cannabis safe because their health-care provider hadn't communicated to them that it wasn't.

Lead author Hamideh Bayrampour, assistant professor in the UBC department of family practice, said the study is important for public health officials to understand perceptions of cannabis use, especially since the drug became legal in Canada.

"What we looked at was perception, not actual risk," Bayrampour said. 

The pot industry faces a "massive inflationary bubble," and that means investors have to be careful, a cannabis CEO told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Many, many people are entering the cannabis space, which is terrific, but they actually have to have a purpose — they should be able to generate a business," said Bruce Linton, chief of Canada-based Canopy Growth.

"Everybody wants to be in the cannabis space, and I think investors have to be selective because … there will be a new name every week," Linton warned.

Marijuana stocks have picked up a strong tailwind in recent weeks, and investors are trying to decide which pot companies might be the best buys today.

Let’s take a look at Canopy Growth(TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) and HEXO (TSX:HEXO)to see if one should be in your portfolio right now.

Travellers caught sneaking small amounts of marijuana into Canada could soon be forced to pay fines.

Although stiff criminal penalties will remain options on the books, the federal border agency is developing administrative sanctions to give it more flexibility to deal with people who arrive at the border with cannabis in the era of legal recreational use.

Since Oct. 17, adults in Canada have been allowed to possess and share up to 30 grams of cannabis, but bringing the drug into the country continues to be illegal, carrying a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.

If you are carrying cannabis upon entering Canada, it must be declared to the border agency. Otherwise, you may face arrest and prosecution, the Canada Border Services Agency says.

Earnings season is coming up and one company to keep an eye out for is Shopify Inc (TSX:SHOP)(NYSE:SHOP). The stock has been rallying over the past months and is up over 25% during that time. The stock has seen a lot of range activity over the past several months and could be due to break out sooner or later. How it performs in its next earnings report could determine its direction.

We’re about a month away from when the company is set to report its Q4 results, but given how volatile the stock has been, investors will want to start monitoring it now.

On 17 October 2018 (‘Legalisation Day’) Canada became the world’s second – and largest – country to legalise recreational cannabis, 17 years after it first made medical cannabis legal. The historic move, which allows adults aged 18 and over to possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis and grow up to four plants per residence, was greeted enthusiastically by many in the country but has nonetheless prompted concerns from some over patient access to cannabis-based medicines.

Health Europa asked James O’Hara, the president and CEO of non-profit organisation Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana (CFAMM), to tell us
more about the challenges surrounding medical cannabis and the implications of recreational legalisation.