Jason Drummond sees cannabis as a good investment.

That’s why his company, York Plains Investment Corp., has earmarked $3 million to invest in businesses in the growing marijuana industry.

“It sounds maybe a bit taboo, but in reality it’s scientifically-proven medicine,” said Drummond.

He and four partners have secured finances from almost 50 people, and hope to raise a total investment of about $30 million; $100,000 is the minimum individual commitment.

Those investors include some legal marijuana growers and people from across Canada, including Regina businessman Mike Ash.

Drummond, Ash’s partner in the Leopold’s Tavern ownership group, told him about the opportunity.

Organigram Holdings Inc. (TSX VENTURE:OGI) (OTCQB:OGRMF) (the "Company") is pleased to report the financial results for the quarter ending November 30, 2016. The Company continues to generate positive cash flow and significant year over year growth in sales of both dried flower and cannabis oils. The company is also providing an update regarding its recent voluntary recall of cannabis products, the current quantified impact to the financial statements, and some of the immediate and voluntary corrective actions and operating policies that Organigram has implemented. 

Selected highlights from the quarter include the following: 

Aurora Cannabis has been granted a license to distribute cannabis extracts by Health Canada nearly one year after securing its production license, the company announced in a press release. Since then, Aurora has “dedicated a portion of its production output towards the stockpiling of cannabis oils and concentrates” in anticipation of the distribution license.

Investors study ways to buy into pot as rules change. But is it real or market euphoria?

Jamie Dutra has just finished unlocking the doors and rolling back the security screens at The Dragon, a shop in Toronto's Bloor West Village that is part of a Canadian investment trend.

Only five minutes after opening time, there are two customers and a reporter in the small shop. Dutra is ringing up $18 worth of rolling papers and other things she describes as "accessories for legal smoking mixtures."

Despite the fact that medical marijuana is legal and the federal government is about to lift the prohibition on recreational pot, laws from an earlier era prevent sellers from calling their goods drug paraphernalia, she says.

M Partners analyst Mason Brown says the Canadian marijuana legalization experience will be a “rollercoaster ride”, but says a few companies are poised to reap the lion’s share of the benefit.

In a special report, Brown said the beer industry is the best way to look at the way distribution of recreational cannabis in Canada.

Saskatoon residents have a new avenue to clear the air about medical marijuana.

Supplying customers with information, classes and access to doctors open to prescribing medical marijuana, National Access Cannabis (NAC) opened its Saskatoon location in early January.

Promoting and educating people about marijuana as medicine, the business — which has locations across Canada — does not house or sell any marijuana, nor does it encourage people to purchase marijuana from illegal storefront dispensaries.

Instead it encourages clients to purchase medicine from one of Health Canada’s 38 licensed producers.

Canadians and Americans spent US$56.4 billion on marijuana in 2016, and 88 per cent of that spending was illegal, according to a new report.

The report by ArcView Market Research, titled "The State Of Legal Marijuana Markets," looked at legal, medicinal and illicit markets in the U.S. and Canada. The organization released an executive summary of their findings this week, in advance of the full report's release in February.

Mayor hopes letter to Health Canada will breathe life back into Vida Cannabis's plan to open plant.

The Town of Stellarton, N.S., is urging Health Canada to quickly approve a proposed medical marijuana production facility in the community, an enterprise the mayor says would bring much-needed jobs to the area.

At a town council meeting this week, a motion was passed to write a letter to Health Canada in support of Vida Cannabis's plan to operate a pot plant at the old Clairtone building on Acadia Street.

"The intent of it was to expedite the process of making 114 Acadia St. as operations for a cannabis production facility," said Stellarton Mayor Danny MacGillivray.

With just one word — Erbachay — is raising a lot of eyebrows around Saskatchewan.

The ads, displayed in Regina and Saskatoon, show a green leaf with the word “Erbachay” and “Canada Wide Delivery.”

The company behind the signs are a Vancouver-based medical marijuana dispensary that sells and delivers weed.

“By putting these billboards up, we’re trying to help that process. Make it a little more normalized, make it more accessible,” Erbachay Health Centers president Darcy Delainey said.

Erbachay isn’t a licensed producer for cannabis with Health Canada but within Vancouver city limits, Delainey said he can sell medical marijuana.

The billboards are a way to educate the public and hopefully destigmatize weed, he said.

It looks really close to becoming official.

All signs are pointing to marijuana being legalized in Canada sometime in 2017. Millions of Canadians who enjoy a puff or two every now and again are excited they?ll no longer have to hide their habits from their friends, professional colleagues, and especially law enforcement.

But the excitement of the average smoker doesn?t get close to the euphoria surrounding investing in the drug. There are thousands of investors convinced pot stocks are the next big thing.