Marijuana company Canopy Growth Corp. has signed a deal to buy a German firm that specializes in vaporizer design and manufacturing for about $220 million in cash.

Under the deal, Canopy will pay 145 million euros for Storz & Bickel GmbH & Co. KG.

Based in in Tuttlingen, Germany, the company designs and manufactures of medically approved vaporizers.

Canopy says the German firm has a portfolio of 17 filed patents that will improve its existing vaporizer design operations.

Founders Markus Storz and Jürgen Bickel are expected to remain part of the organization.

A medical cannabis company is expanding its sales and production capabilities in southwestern Ontario.

AgMedica Biosience Inc. has acquired two new indoor processing facilities — one in Chatham and one in London. 

CEO Trevor Henry said the company is well-positioned if Health Canada approves the sale of cannabis-infused beverages or edibles.

"We're actually building a plane as we're flying it," he said. "But you know what, when you have confidence in your team, and you're moving through the regulatory hurdles very quickly, we think we're very well-positioned."

London's 10,000 square-foot location will be used for processing, packaging and bottling. The new 300,000 square-foot Chatham facility will be used for future cannabis-plant cultivation.

Marijuana producer 48North has applied for an outdoor cultivation licence — the only cannabis company to do since the government approved outdoor growing in the summer — to plant marijuana on its 40-hectare property outside of Brantford in one of the nation’s richest farm belts.

Company co-chief executive Jeannette VanderMarel, who hails from a family of apple producers, says she’s drawing on her agricultural background for the endeavour.

“Basically, I’m planning this like an orchard,” she said, adding work on the operation is well underway while the company awaits approval from Health Canada.

“I know that I need to work the ground this fall in order to have it ready for spring planting.”

Eighty years ago, the police chief on the Caughnawaga reserve across the St. Lawrence river from Montreal spent weeks supervising the picking, carting, and burning of 3,500 pounds of pot under order of the Department of Indian Affairs. “The leaves and seeds of the marijuana plant contain a drug police fear more than any other narcotic,” ominously warned the Montreal Gazette on September 29, 1938, adding cops considered it a “greater menace” than opium and cocaine because it “often brings on insanity.”

The marijuana industry has had a truly unforgettable year. In October, Canada lifted nine decades of recreational marijuana prohibition and opened its doors to an industry that, when fully up to speed by sometime near the beginning of next decade, should have the potential to generate $5 billion in added annual sales. Mind you, this is an industry that was already thriving via domestic medical weed sales and exports to medically legal markets.

Adam Bierman could be the poster boy of the modern canna-­business executive. Clean-cut, young, driven, smooth as a vape hit -- about as removed from the bong-bogarting stoner as you can get. He’s also killing it.

Aurora Cannabis Inc  (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB) has likely seen its best days behind it. Year to date, the stock has lost a quarter of its value and there’s not a lot of excitement around the stock anymore.

When I initially came across Auxly Cannabis (OTCMKTS:CBWTF) in my research, it immediately caught my attention as it bridges together two of my favorite investment themes — streaming royalty payments and marijuana.

As the first of its kind, the company provides funding to the marijuana industry, which can be very difficult to get for early-stage companies. In return for the funding, Auxly is entitled to royalty payments and/or a piece of the company.

An industry in its infancy, the cannabis sector has been drawing several big-name investors given the industry’s rapid-growth outlook. Back in November 2017, Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED) drew headlines as Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ), one of the world’s largest alcohol companies, announced a $245M investment in Canopy. Since then, the industry has seen further consolidation and continues to draw interest from large alcohol and tobacco companies.

In October, Toronto's iconic cannabis culture shop announced a $10 million expansion plan that will allow them to become one of Ontario's premier marijuana retailers over the next several years.

While the shop is reportedly aiming to open 100 stores across Canada eventually, their more immediate plans are to open 50 in the next two years. Starting with the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario cities.