Alberta's latest cannabis growers said Tuesday they remain bullish about the nascent industry despite a major sell-off of pot stocks that has sent share prices tumbling for months.

After submitting its application for a production license four years ago, Airdrie's Sundial Growers secured Health Canada's approval last week, becoming the third legal producer of medical marijuana in Alberta.

The facility west of Airdrie is relatively small for the industry, at 30,000 square feet, but the company plans to break ground in the coming weeks on a $120-million grow-op spanning 400,000 square feet in the central Alberta town of Olds.

With cannabis legalization on the horizon next year, the federal government must make it easier to study the potential medical benefits of the drug and evaluate how ending prohibition might affect society, according to an open letter to politicians from dozens of the country’s leading academics and public-health researchers who study the drug.

“Under widespread global prohibition, cannabis research has been limited by the criminalization and stigmatization of cannabis use and users, leading to substantial gaps in knowledge around the harms and benefits of both medical and non-medical cannabis,” reads a letter sent Monday to federal lawmakers on the letterhead of the BC Centre on Substance Use, an organization funded by the provincial government to study drugs.

If illicit pot plants flourishing covertly in the Colombian countryside represent the marijuana industry’s past, then Canada’s commercial-scale medical licensing system represents its future.

PharmaCielo Ltd., a privately held medical marijuana producer with global ambitions, is hoping to capitalize on both those traditions.

The company, which has board members from U.S. big tobacco and big pharma, is headquartered in Canada — a decision made due to this country’s sophisticated medical cannabis regulations, friendly financial markets and growing base of accountants, lawyers and bankers with cannabis expertise.

The Canadian government is rapidly speeding up the issuance of cultivation licenses to marijuana producers across the country, in a move that aims to address growing concerns of a supply crunch in the legal weed market come July 1, 2018. 

The firm aims to start research and production of cannabis oils immediately, it said.

Progress at WeedMD Inc (CVE:WMD) just keeps rolling on..

Today, the group said it had received a supplemental licence from Health Canada to produce medical cannabis oils - an important market.

"This is an important milestone in our path and commitment to providing physicians and their patients with alternative, more convenient and dose-controlled consumption methods," said Bruce Dawson-Scully, chief executive.

An illegal pot shop on Bank Street recently had a sale on peanut butter cookies. The cannabis-laced sweets  were $5, a third of the regular price of $15.

“For this price, you can’t go wrong,” said a customer snapping up 10 of them. “Might as well stock up.”

The store had traditional dried weed for sale in glass jars, but half the display cases were filled with cookies, gummy candies shaped like teddy bears, tea, cannabis concentrates and vape pens loaded with cannabis oil.

It’s a reflection of a broad shift among marijuana users away from smoking.

In cannabis cutting-edge Colorado, dried weed makes up a steadily shrinking proportion of sales. And edible products like chocolate bars, candy and lemonade are taking a growing bite out of the market.

The federal government is preparing a backup plan that would see it regulate the distribution and taxation of legal marijuana in provinces that are not ready in time for Ottawa’s July, 2018, deadline.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau outlined the plan Monday following a two-day meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts. Some provinces are expressing concern with the federal government’s deadline for legalization, given that important details, such as how the products will be taxed, have yet to be worked out.

Speaking with reporters, Mr. Morneau said a backup plan will be in place that would see Ottawa regulate a legal cannabis market based on mail delivery in provinces that have not yet established a regime to regulate sales at the retail level.

Taxation isn't the only factor in the quest to undercut black market prices.

Provincial finance ministers are getting a clear message from the federal government this week: Keep taxes on legal marijuana sales consistently low across Canada, or risk undercutting the government's goal of ending black market cannabis sales.

But provincial governments may find that enticing consumers to buy legal marijuana over illicit weed will take more than just tweaking tax rates. The question of how provinces allow marijuana to be sold could also play an important role in pricing.

Where there’s smoke, there’s a benefits claim.

Turns out that’s the case with a new Ontario Public Sector Employees Union policy that will see its members covered for medical marijuana.

The new policy, announced Friday by OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas, will see union employees who have a doctor’s prescription reimbursed for a valid medical marijuana prescription.

“There are benefits to medical cannabis,” Thomas said. “We’ve been working with the (insurance) carrier that we have, SSQ, and it took a bit...so for certain illnesses it’s a hell of a lot better than every day drugs.”

If you're an investor looking for rapid and consistent growth, you'd probably struggle to find an industry that's outperforming marijuana at the moment. A report issued last month by Marijuana Business Daily entitled "Marijuana Business Factbook 2017," calls for 30% growth in U.S. legal weed sales in 2017 to a range of $5.1 billion to $6.1 billion, and roughly 300% growth between 2016 and 2021 to more than $17 billion.

Here's why legal cannabis sales are soaring

What's sparking this growth, you ask? Look no further than improving public opinion toward cannabis, the desire of state governments to generate revenue, and "pot-trepreneurs."