There may be no other sector with higher investor interest than cannabis.

Once a batch of small, highly risky stocks that traded on obscure exchanges, cannabis shares are reaching a new level of maturity. The first wave of publicly traded marijuana companies found a home on the Toronto Stock Exchange and other Canadian markets, since the United States’ federal drug laws had mostly dissuaded companies from listing on that country’s stock exchanges. That’s changing, owing to the success of Tilray Inc., a B.C. cannabis company that went directly to the Nasdaq stock exchange and saw it shares zoom from US$17 to a high of US$300 in a wild first few months of trading.

Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there.

When Canada launches its fully recreational marijuana market in the next week, the cannabis industry is expected to not only serve those die-hard customers who have dedicated years, maybe even decades to the black market but also those curious people new to cannabis. It is those neophytes on the scene, those with little concern for getting stoned out of their gourds, that could create an overwhelming demand in low-THC pot products, according to an insightful report from Deloitte.

Cannabis is going to be legalized in across Canada next Wednesday, October 17, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to be able to buy and consume legal weed then.

Not being able to get hands on the legal stuff will be the situation a lot of Canadians find themselves in come legalization day. To be blunt (hehe) about it, the provincial government's rollouts on legal weed aren’t fair nor equal. Yes, all the provinces will be offering an online service to ship weed to their residents but none are advertising same-day delivery. This means that, sadly, on national Weed Is Legal Day there are going to be some who won’t be able to get nice and baked off legal kush and will be forced to get weed the same way we’ve always purchased weed.

Smoking or vaping pot in Alberta's national park towns won't be easy for residents or those visiting to enjoy mountain views.

Shying away from becoming cannabis tourist attractions, Jasper and Banff township officials say they're regulating pot for the comfort and protection of their residents. Both municipalities have chosen to ban smoking and vaping cannabis in public. 

Not looking at tourism 

Jasper is defining public space the same way it is written in the liquor act, meaning: you can't smoke or vape in any vehicle in a public place or building accessible to the public. Mayor Richard Ireland underlines that includes parking lots. 

Eager pot buyers hoping to score some weed when Canada goes legal next week could be in for a bummer.

Across the nation, only a handful of retail locations will be up and running on Oct. 17, including just one store in British Columbia and none in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Producers, meanwhile, are unlikely to come close to meeting initial demand due to delays in getting licences and signing supply agreements. The result will be limited selections of dried bud and oils for consumers.

Canadian marijuana giant Aurora Cannabis has filed an application to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that would make it the second major plant-touching company to trade on the Big Board – and the latest from Canada to establish roots on Wall Street.

If approved, the Edmonton-based company could begin trading on the NYSE before the end of the month, Aurora announced in a news release. Aurora would join Canopy Growth, which began trading on the Big Board in May.

Walmart Inc.’s Canadian arm has been investigating the possibility of selling cannabis-based products but doesn’t intend to get into the much-hyped business yet.

“As we would for any new industry, Walmart Canada has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue, but we do not have plans to carry CBD products at this time,” spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said in an email, referring to cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants.

Interest in CBD has been booming as Canada prepares to legalize recreational marijuana next week and several large alcohol and consumer products companies have indicated they’re studying CBD’s commercial possibilities.

With just over a week to go until legalization, the BC government has said that “new and amended regulations” are now in place “to support British Columbia’s legal cannabis regime and prioritize the health and safety of British Columbians.”

With just one week to go before the first legal weed Wednesday, the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) has announced what online cannabis sales are going to look like.

For consumers living far from one of the province’s 12 cannabis retail stores, those who don’t want to wait in long lineups, or those who aren’t comfortable purchasing pot in public, the online option is likely to be preferable.