Been doing some digging into the biggest cannabis stocks that were making waves back at the end of 2024, and honestly the landscape is pretty interesting when you look at the actual market leaders.

The cannabis sector had a rough couple of years leading into 2024, stuck dealing with regulatory headwinds in both the US and Canada. But there's been some movement - the DEA rescheduling discussion from Schedule I to III created some buzz, though it's moving slower than people hoped. Still, the major players keep pushing forward and that's what caught my attention.

Let me break down what I found looking at the two biggest cannabis ETFs - the US-focused MSOS and the Canada-focused HMMJ - as they give you a pretty solid snapshot of where the real capital is flowing in this space.

On the US side, the largest cannabis stocks were dominated by multi-state operators. Green Thumb Industries was sitting at the top with over a third of the MSOS weighting, running a vertically integrated operation across multiple states with recognizable brands like Rythm and Beboe. They're the kind of company that controls everything from cultivation to retail, which is the model most serious operators follow.

Triulieve was another heavyweight, particularly strong in Florida but with significant presence in Arizona and Pennsylvania. By mid-2024 they'd hit 200 dispensaries, which shows the scale these companies operate at. Curaleaf was also a major player with 150+ dispensaries spread across 19 states, and they'd even made the move to the Toronto Stock Exchange in late 2023.

Verano and Cresco Labs rounded out the top tier of major cannabis stocks in the US market. Verano operates through Zen Leaf and MÜV retail locations across 14 states, while Cresco focuses heavily on wholesale distribution alongside their own retail footprint.

Now here's something interesting - when you look at the Canadian side through the HMMJ ETF, you see a different mix. Innovative Industrial Properties wasn't a cannabis operator itself but a REIT providing real estate to the industry, which actually gave it the highest weighting. It's basically capitalizing on the fact that traditional financing is tough for cannabis companies in the US, so they provide sale-leaseback arrangements.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals had major weighting too, mostly because of their 2021 acquisition of GW Pharmaceuticals and Epidiolex for 7.2 billion - one of the biggest moves by traditional pharma into the space.

Canada's homegrown biggest cannabis stocks included Cronos Group with their popular Spinach brand, SNDL (formerly Sundial Growers) as the largest private-sector cannabis retailer in Canada, and Canopy Growth, one of the world's largest producers.

What strikes me is how the market structure differs. US operators are all about vertical integration and state-by-state expansion, dealing with the federal illegality issue by building strong regional presences. Canadian companies have a different regulatory environment but face their own challenges with high taxes and competition from the unregulated market.

The biggest cannabis stocks in both countries have adapted to their respective regulatory frameworks, but they're all basically waiting for the same thing - more favorable federal policy. For US companies especially, that could be a real catalyst. Whether you're looking at the largest cannabis operators in America or the established players in Canada, they're all positioned for significant upside if the regulatory environment shifts.

If you're tracking this space, watching these major players and their movements is usually where to start. The sector's been beaten down, sure, but the infrastructure these companies have built is real.