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Picture yourself enjoying a bottle of cannabis beer after a long day, as you rub THC cream into your sore muscles and your spouse dozes off thanks to a marijuana-derived sleep aid.

It’s a vision of the future of legal cannabis consumption that may be closer to reality than many expect.

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While Canadians will be able to buy marijuana for recreational purposes in retail shops across the country sometime later this year, it’s not just the pungent plant that’s making entrepreneurs and investment bankers salivate. It’s also the chemical compounds: THC, CBD, and dozens of other cannabinoids, which can be extracted and reformulated into all manner of consumer and medical products.

At first, the legal products will be limited to dried bud, oil and gel caps — brownies and other edibles won’t be legal until at least mid-2019, if ever. But Canadian companies are already busy dreaming up novel ways of getting buzzed or treating medical conditions, some of which could end up as mainstream as sparking a joint.