The Federal government has said it will not consider decriminalizing drugs other than marijuana despite the country’s major cities urging them to consider otherwise.

A report by Health Canada found that in 2017, close to 4,000 Canadians died from an apparent opioid overdose. There were 303 in Toronto alone. Montreal saw 140 opioid-related deaths in just a little over a year’s time.

To better prepare the workforce, a Canadian company will start teaching cannabis education courses for employers. A Canadian consulting company will soon be starting cannabiseducation for employers, according to a report from the CBC. The Alberta firm, Cannabis at Work, will offer courses to help employers navigate the Canadian legalization of cannabis.

The classes are designed to help companies understand how the law impacts employers that may have workers who use cannabis, either medicinally or recreationally. The courses are scheduled to begin next month at the University of Calgary.

William Caines doesn't have a criminal record. But he still dreads potential employers asking for a criminal record check.

He's one of 12 workers charged in raids on Saint John cannabis dispensaries in January. 

When the results reveal to potential bosses he has a court date coming up, "they're like, is this guy a pedophile, is this guy a killer, what is he?" said Caines.

"It's been really hard getting work."

Caines hopes that's going to change soon. 

Toronto researchers have determined what dosage of a specially formulated cannabis oil is safe and can be tolerated by children with Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic form of epilepsy that causes lifelong seizures.

Researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children tested the cannabis oil, which contains CBD (cannabidiol) and a small amount of marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) in 20 children with Dravet syndrome, whose seizures were not well-controlled with standard anti-convulsant medications.

Kevin Tindall does not smoke pot.

But the corporate accountant in Saskatoon and his business partners need at least 10 people in Swift Current, Sask., who can explain marijuana to new customers and keep Tindall's downtown cannabis store rolling once recreational marijuana use becomes legal on Oct. 17.

"It's going to be based on personality and their ability to sell," said Tindall, who spent several years running a Boston Pizza in Swift Current before he won one of the province's 51 permits to retail pot.

"We're looking forward to being open well before the legalization date just for information purposes," Tindall said. "I think this industry's going to be huge."

Veterans Affairs Canada plans to hold the line for now on its policy for medical marijuana after a move that capped reimbursements reversed years of rapid spending growth in the program.

"At the present time, there are no plans to change the maximum daily reimbursement limit of the three grams per day, or to amend the criteria for the exceptional approval for reimbursement of the more than three grams per day," said Sandra Williamson, the department's senior director for health care programs. An internal departmental briefing note from February indicated that a review could be in the works, and referenced a directive from Treasury Board to report on the impacts of the new reimbursement policy.

An Alberta-based cannabis company has opened a marijuana concept store as Canadians prepare for cannabis legalization.

Cannabis seller Fire and Flower has set up the store in Edmonton, after being one of the first companies to receive conditional approval from the province.

While they cannot yet sell cannabis, the company hopes their concept store will give them an advantage as they apply to open more stores across the province. “For us, creating the store you see around you today was really important, it shows our regulators what a store will look like,” Fire and Flower CEO Trevor Fencott told CTV Edmonton.

Medical grade cannabis or base metals? It feels like a very Canadian-stock-market kind of question, doesn’t it? While the TSX has traditionally be known for its financials, mining stocks, and energy stocks, nowadays your pal Google will very helpfully suggest “cannabis” if you try searching for Canadian stocks. There’s little wonder why. Cannabis is this generation’s internet in terms of investment. But as with the dot.com rush, the big players are yet to be identified in this brand-new industry. That’s why growth investors today may want to compare weed stocks with those other high-growth plays: Canadian miners. Both industries offer…

One of the primary determinants of whether the federal government’s plan to legalize recreational weed will end up being a success story is how much a gram of legal weed will cost the Canadian consumer.

If the price of legal weed is higher than the current market price of black market weed, there’ll be very little incentive for people to go the legal route. On the flip side, if legal weed is roughly the same price as illegal weed, or lower in price, it is fair to assume that demand for legal weed will quickly outpace illegal weed.

Roadside saliva-testing devices were authorized by Bill C-46, a massive overhaul of Canada's impaired driving laws that passed in June.

The federal government’s crackdown on drug-impaired driving has taken a big step forward, as the Justice Department is set to give its blessing to Canada’s first roadside saliva test. Once in use, police officers will be able to swab a driver’s mouth to test for the presence of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.