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The 7 Largest Marijuana Stocks All Have This Dubious Statistic in Common: These are some lofty valuations with little to show for it.

Seemingly nothing can stop the marijuana industry, or marijuana stocks, at the moment.Over the past couple of years, we’ve witnessed a number of major milestones for the cannabis industry. For example, in 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states where a majority of voters legalized the sale of recreational marijuana to adults ages 21 and up. Since then, an additional six states have joined in. The rapid growth in legal recreational weed sales is what helped push Colorado well over the $1 billion total legal sales mark (medical plus recreational) by the end of October in 2016. Comparatively, legal sales only hit $996.2 million in 2015.

Another interesting milestone involves Ohio and Pennsylvania. The legislatures of both states wound up legalizing medical marijuana in 2016, which could pave a path for other legislatures to save time and follow their lead.

The largest marijuana stocks have skyrocketed over the past year

This rapid growth in legal pot has create quite the demand for marijuana stocks. The seven largest marijuana stocks by market cap have all put on a show over the past couple of years. Here are those seven “green giants” listed with their market caps as of March 17, 2017, along with their trailing one-year total returns.

As you can see, these are some hefty valuations — and some exceptionally strong moves higher on the heels of marijuana’s expansion. With the exception of GW Pharmaceuticals, every one of the largest marijuana stocks has at least tripled in value over the trailing 12 months, with cannabinoid-based drug developer AXIM Biotechnologies skyrocketing more than 1,700%! [Read [email protected] Motley Fool]