"Safe" and "marijuana stocks" are words you usually don't find in the same sentence, and for good reason. Marijuana stocks are characterized by high risk and volatility. 

However, not all marijuana stocks are alike and some have considerably less risk than others. These investments are not guaranteed wins, as no stock meets the absolute safety criteria. But relatively speaking, these marijuana stocks are safer picks than their peers. Here's what you need to know about five of the safest marijuana stocks for 2019.

Often, when analysts or bloggers talk up the potential of marijuana stocks, the focus is on the consumer side of the industry. But some of the best stocks in the pot sector may be medical marijuana stocks.

Indeed, it’s on the medical side where growth likely is to be largest in the near term.

Canada did legalize recreational marijuana in October, but investors promptly sold the news in response. U.S. legalization is likely to be a long slog. Attitudes are mixed in Europe — but even in legalized markets anywhere, black market (and untaxed) operators will be able to take share.

The marijuana industry had a groundbreaking, yet odd, 2018, with history made at seemingly every turn and most investors ultimately disappointed.

A year of highs and buzzkills

On one hand, the cannabis industry gained legitimacy like never before. That's because Canada tore down the curtain on nine decades of recreational marijuana prohibition and became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize adult-use weed. Given a few years, the Canadian legal cannabis industry could be generating $5 billion in added annual sales as a result of this legalization.

Global Marijuana Vaporizer Consumption Market 2018 report focuses on the major drivers and restraints for the global key players. It also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market.

The Marijuana Vaporizer Consumption market report is an extensive analysis of this business sphere, that has been touted to be one of most profitable business verticals in recent times. The study enumerates the total valuation of this business space currently, in addition to presenting a succinct segmentation of the industry, the expansion opportunities, as well as its regional expanse.

What does this report cover?

Market Drivers & Challenges

Last year will likely go down in the record books as being the most important in the history of the legal cannabis movement. By the time the curtain closed on 2018, Canada had legalized recreational marijuana, a handful of additional U.S. states had given marijuana the green light in some capacity, and the U.S. farm bill had been signed by President Trump, thereby legalizing hemp and hemp-based cannabidiol. The legal cannabis industry gained validity like never before and became a legitimate business model for investors.

Ontario-based startup Eve & Co (TSXV: EVE; OTCQB: EEVVF), a cannabis company specifically marketed towards female consumers, just completed its first ever full shipment of product to the Cannabis NL website.

The company’s gender-focused specialization represents a potentially untapped corner of the market, with studies showing that marijuana usage to combat the effects of morning sickness is increasing among pregnant women.

Eve & Co provides cannabis products through subsidiary Natural MedCo Ltd, which is licensed for fresh and dried flower sales to provincial retailers under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations.

From Taiwanese cheese tea (tea topped with cheesy foam), which is apparently poised to become “the new bubble tea,” to a rise in “peganism” (a paleo/vegan diet mashup), forecasters have already predicted several new trends for 2019. But if there’s one thing Canadians can count on to radically transform food and drink in the new year, it’s the introduction of newly licit edibles.

The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) — the first and only pure ETF targeting the cannabis/marijuana industry — launched a year ago and has been on a roller coaster ride as it replaced Bitcoin and crytptocurrencies as the latest market sector to experience a bubble then pop. Year to date the fund is down 22.4%.

All the fund's cannabis stocks are Canadian companies. So, both the fund and the stocks rallied in the run-up to Canada legalizing recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, hitting an all-time high (pun not intended) of $40. Since then, the combination of the stock market taking a dive and cannabis producers reporting weak earnings, has sent the fund's shares tumbling 38% to close the year at $24.95.

Canada has some fine fare when it comes to nugs, but it’s still not a good idea to try and bring pot back over the U.S. border after a trip to our northern neighbors’ legalized haven. Pot seizures are up around 140 percent since Canada legalized, and mailed herb is also getting snagged more often.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and WGRZ News, in October 2017, around two pounds of marijuana was seized, in 40 incidents, across the entire border. In October 2018, the numbers went up: 85 pounds were seized in over 100 occurrences.

You'd think that 2018 would have been a huge year for Canadian marijuana stocks. The recreational marijuana market in Canada launched in October. Several Canadian growers experienced revenue growth from the German medical marijuana market. New markets opened, including the United Kingdom, which legalized medical cannabis this year.