Canada's largest pharmacy chain has formally applied to be a distributor of medical marijuana.

"We have applied to be a licensed producer strictly for the purposes of distributing medical marijuana," Shoppers Drug Mart spokeswoman Tammy Smitham told CBC News in an email Tuesday.

"We have no intention of producing medical marijuana, but we do want the ability to dispense medical marijuana to our patients in conjunction with counselling from a pharmacist."

The move is the next step in a logical progression for the chain, which earlier this year was looking into the possibility of entering the burgeoning business. 

Interra Oils, a Washington state-based company that sells marijuana concentrate products–those that can be inhaled using a vaporizer or added to edibles–has to wait until it’s ready to deliver orders to customers before it adds a 16-digit sublot code to each individual package. Each time it gets an order from a store–even if it is the same order that same store made the previous week–it has to create a new manifest and generate a new 16-digit code.

British Sugar will be swapping tomato plants for cannabis seedlings after signing a long-term contract to supply the crop to drugs company GW Pharmaceuticals.

The marijuana plants, which are of a non-psychoactive variety, will be grown in British Sugar’s 18-hectare glasshouse in Wissington, Norfolk, where the company, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, is currently cultivating tomatoes. The space is the equivalent of 23 football pitches.

“Every year we try to work out the best commercial assets for the glasshouse,” said Paul Kenward, managing director of British Sugar.

Good Chemistry Nurseries, a leading producer of Cannabis products and related services, will offer Cannabis industry insights at the following events over the next four months. Drawing from the company’s experience in cultivation, consumer education, and innovative best practices, Good Chemistry Nurseries executives and team members will participate as moderators, exhibitors, and speakers at a series of public educational and outreach events listed below.

An organic gardening company in Switzerland has managed to make high-CBD cannabis flower available to consumers by capping the THC content and registering the product with regulators as a tobacco substitute. The Fedora strain, cultivated by northern Swiss grower Bio Can, is advertised at 7.2 percent CBD and just 0.04 percent THC, which reportedly allows the buds to adhere to both the Swiss Narcotics Act as well as existing food laws.

If you still have questions about legalizing marijuana under Proposition 64, tune in to the Register's Facebook page at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, for a live Q&A with editor Andre Mouchard and reporter Brooke Edwards Staggs. Email questions ahead of time to bstaggs@scng.com or ask them live via Facebook during the chat.

Proposition 64, on its surface, poses a simple question: Should people be free to smoke pot in California?

As David Chao walks into the glass conference room, there’s nothing unusual about him as an investor. He’s tall, middle-aged with dark hair and clutching the expected techie accessory: a smartphone.

But there’s one unusual detail about Chao: He’s a medical marijuana user.

Chao first gave cannabis a try a couple of years ago, after a cycle of painful stomach and lung problems he couldn’t relieve through traditional medicine. One day, as they sat around playing video games, pal Blake Krikorian, a co-founder of Sling Media who recently died of a heart attack, suggested Chao look into alternative treatments such as medical marijuana.

If you suffer from insomnia, anxiety or some sort of continuous pain, then you’ve probably tried self-medicating loads of times.

Alcohol. Pain killers. Sleeping tablets.

They might all work for a while but, once the effect has worn off, you’re back to square one – uncomfortable, tired and stressed.

But you can now get a 100% organic hemp milk which promises to sooth anxieties and pains, aid sleep and reduce stress – via CBD (cannabidiol) oil.

Relax, by Rawligion, contains hemp seeds, cashews, dates, coconut oil, vanilla, water and CBD oil – and that’s it.

Edibles producer Spot is trying to keep first-time marijuana eaters from biting off more than they can chew.

"Well, you know the Maureen Dowd story," sighed Tim Moxey. "And it's just not a good story."

True, Dowd's experience was less than ideal: She ate a couple bites of a pot-infused candy bar, then curled into a ball in her Denver hotel room and had a panic attack. The next day she discovered the bar was supposed to have been broken into 16 pieces, not munched on bite by bite.

Yes, Washington was part of the vanguard when it came to legalizing marijuana. And yes, voters in even more states might approve legalization in November for recreational use.

But if you think drug tests have fallen out of fashion in Tacoma, Olympia and elsewhere in this state, think again.

Now that the economy has improved post-recession, companies are fishing from a smaller pool of job seekers who can pass mandatory drug screenings, said Hans Kueck, an economic development specialist with Pierce County.