The Canadian marijuana stocks we’ve discovered are the likeliest candidates to list on a major U.S. stock exchange. If successful, these Canadian cannabis companies could see even greater upside momentum.

2018 was a pivotal year for pot, with both the legalization and legitimization of the drug gathering steam.

Beginning with Australia giving the green light to cannabis exports, and ending with the New Zealand government announcing it will hold a referendum on recreational pot legalization in the next general election come 2020, 2018 saw an increasing mainstream acceptance of weed.

MJIC Inc., a pot distributor building a “cannabis superhighway” in California, is planning a Canadian listing by the end of February.

The company, based in Commerce, near Los Angeles, plans to sell shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange via a reverse takeover, Chief Executive Officer Sturges Karban said in a phone interview. MJIC has hired Haywood Securities Inc. to identify a Canadian shell company to enable the deal.

“Our timeline to get through to that point is probably another 30 to 45 days or so,” he said. Karban declined to say how much MJIC expects to raise but said the listing would be followed by a “much broader, bigger offering.”

Acreage Holdings and Organigram are some of the few cannabis companies to release 2019 revenue guidance. Given the early stage of the cannabis industry, companies often do not provide revenue & EBITDA outlooks, likely due to speculation. The cannabis stocks on our list have provided revenue estimates for 2019, which give investors and analysts an expectation to follow.

Shoppers Drug Mart's e-commerce platform for medical cannabis launched Tuesday, a month after Health Canada licenced the company to sell the product online.

Product information is available nationally, but Shoppers Drug Mart can initially only sell medical cannabis to patients in Ontario. Patients will be required to take a medical document similar to a prescription to an Ontario pharmacy to begin the process. Specialized advisers will then contact patients, review their medical history and provide support with online registration and product selection.

Shoppers Drug Mart says it has signed supply agreements with 10 licensed producers of dried cannabis and cannabis oil and will provide products and medical accessories.

If any investors had been wondering how long it would take for the marijuana industry to shed its moniker as "taboo" and become a legitimate business model, wonder no longer.

Last year was a game changer in many ways for the cannabis industry. Canada became the first industrialized country to legalize adult-use weed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its first cannabis-derived drug, and President Trump signed the Farm Bill into law, legalizing hemp and hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD). Any doubts about marijuana being a valid business model were tossed out the window.

Headset, an analytics startup for the nascent marijuana industry, closed a $12.1 million Series A funding round backed by prominent investors.

The round was led by Poseidon Asset Management, an early Juul investor that's raising a $75 million venture fund to go after marijuana startups, and included middle-market private-equity fund AFI Capital Partners and Canopy Rivers, the venture arm of the publicly traded marijuana cultivator Canopy Growth.

Canopy Growth Corp  (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) is Canada’s best-known marijuana stock. But in terms of financial results, it’s been far from the best performer. While competitors like Aurora Cannabis Inc have it beat on growth, others, such as CannTrust Holdings have achieved operating profits faster. Nevertheless, Canopy is still the #1 cannabis stock in terms of pure revenue: its sales surpassed Aurora’s by over $20,000,000 in its most recent quarter.

2018 was a momentous year for cannabis advocates as Canada became the second country (after Uruguay) to legalize recreational marijuana use. Canadians and cannabis companies alike eagerly awaited legalization, but the rollout hasn’t been as smooth as they would have liked.

Marijuana stocks have ebbed and flowed for a few years now, but the absolute peak of the frenzy hit about this time last year. That made the prospect of a year-end list a tough proposition. How bad was it? Of the scores of cannabis related issuers listed in Canada just eight had a positive return in 2018.

You heard that right. Eight.

The culprit, of course, was a year end swoon in global markets that wreaked havoc on most every sector and gutted this one.

A survey taken in early October, for instance, would have produced dozens of winners. But that, as they say, is why you play until the final buzzer. We bring you the top ten Canadian-listed marijuana stocks of 2018.