Aaron Sonshine speaks with Business Insider on how the cannabis and alcohol sectors are interacting as beer sales in Canada decline and cannabis companies continue to expand their range of products to consumers. Aaron says one of the ways the two sectors are interacting is with many cannabis companies hiring very aggressively from the alcohol and tobacco industries.

Sonshine said this is because senior management from those sectors have experience navigating a highly regulated market where expertise on consumer package goods and supply chain management are paramount.

"We're not seeing many additional examples of direct investment from the liquor space as you might have expected after Constellations' investments into Canopy," he said, but Canada is seeing its cannabis companies learn from other more mature industries, like tobacco and liquor, as it develops.

One example, Sonshine said, is that the cannabis industry seems to be emulating the liquor sector's tendency to prefer specializing in a particular vertical rather than attempting to rule an entire supply chain. Another example is cannabis companies learning how to navigate narrow marketing parameters, like the one the tobacco industry has had to deal with in marketing its own products.

Aaron says that until there is an indication from Washington of potential federal legalization in the United States, he does not see alcohol companies jumping into the cannabis sector as very likely.

"Alcohol companies may tread carefully after difficult year for beer, cannabis" is written by Yeji Jesse Lee.