Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries is the latest cannabis company to abandon hope of a U.S. IPO in favor of a reverse takeover in Canada and access to growth capital.

At some point in June, Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries will become a publicly traded company in Canada and raise millions in a private placement, but CEO Pete Kadens won't talk about it.

He is seated in the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel and he's apologizing. "We can't talk about that. We can talk about lots of other things, but not that."

From crime to health to business, Canada’s decision to legalize marijuana is a grand progressive experiment that promises to answer a host of questions.

When Canopy Growth opened its first cannabis factory in an old chocolate plant near Ottawa four years ago, it did so predicting a bright future. Canada had already legalized medical marijuana, and Canopy predicted full legalization for recreational use to be next.

Marijuana industry titans will gather in New Brunswick next week to discuss how to market cannabis in a competitive legal marketplace, and other issues raised by the dawn of government-run weed.

The World Cannabis Congress will host 450 industry leaders starting Sunday evening in Saint John.

Topping their agenda is the branding challenge: Health Canada is requiring marijuana packages to be a single, uniform colour without images or graphics other than the logo and a health warning.

"We have to find creative ways to market our product and differentiate ourselves while remaining within the regulations," said Ray Gracewood, chief operating officer for Organigram, a Moncton, N.B., based medicinal cannabis producer that is ready to enter the recreational market.

Province wants online sales kept inside Sask. borders.

Andrew MacCorquodale says Canopy Growth Corporation is going to sell recreational marijuana online when it becomes legal, but how much of the company's business will come through the internet is a wild card.

Canopy emerged as one of the big winners in the lottery to see which applicants get to sell pot legally in Saskatchewan. The company won five of the 51 permits — the largest single allotment in the province.

Canopy already supplies medical marijuana to patients with legal prescriptions. MacCorquodale said it will draw on that model when setting up the recreational side.

MacCorquodale said it's going to be interesting to see how the online side of the business evolves.

Somewhat overlooked in the spate of media coverage and conversations about Canada’s nascent cannabis industry is the role and responsibility of corporate Canada.

As the country moves closer to legalizing the recreational use of cannabis products later this year, acquisitions, mergers and consolidations leading to massive valuations are an almost daily occurrence.

“It’s an exciting time, but it’s a nerve wracking time,” said Mitchell Osak, managing director of Grant Thornton’s strategic advisory services practice.

“All the rules have yet to be written. We don’t really know what’s going to happen.”

Now that 51 operators for Saskatchewan’s cannabis retail stores are selected, the real work begins according to the president of one of the two successful applicants for the permits in North Battleford.

James Davey of Curativa Cannabis, a division of Envirosafe Chemicals Canada said his company was honoured to be part of the historical marijuana movement in Canada, especially with the amount of competition there was for the permits.

“When you think that there was a four per cent chance of being selected for one of the retail permits, it really is quite remarkable,” Davey told battlefordsNOW. “We are certainly proud to bring the cannabis retail business and opportunity to North Battleford.”

Look for June to be groundbreaking on the cannabis front, says analyst Neil Maruoka of Cannacord Genuity, who argues that investors are now flocking to the cannabis sector in expectation that, finally, rec legalization in Canada will become a reality.

Assure Occupational Safety flagged down the latest information on cannabis in the workplace for a day while legislation continues to change at federal, provincial and municipal levels.

The Lloydminster company hosted its Cannabis & Workplace Safety Conference for safety-sensitive employers and company owners at the Royal Hotel on May 29, while Canada’s recreational cannabis legalization bill makes progress in the Senate.

“As cannabis legislation keeps evolving —both governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan have shared with us what they’ve decided and what they know so far today,” said Assure CEO Jon Rokochy at the event.

“There is still more things to be answered, so as details come out in the months ahead we will have updates for the public.”

Lawyer Blair Pritchett leading marijuana in the workplace seminar in St. John's.

In anticipation of marijuana becoming legal across Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the rest of Canada, employers still have many unanswered questions.

Some of them have been turning to lawyer Blair Pritchett, a partner at McInnes Cooper in St. John's.

He led a half day seminar on Tuesday at Memorial University to brief them about what they'll have to look out for when pot is legalized. 

"I think the biggest issue is going to be …  the issue of residual intoxication," said Pritchett in an interview with CBC Radio's On the Go.

The Kootenays has been growing pot for decades; now locals are worried about losing their grey market.

Patrick Bonin thinks of growing cannabis as a "moral obligation."

He developed a strain that is high in CBD, or cannabidiol, a major component of the plant that has mellowing and pain relieving effects, but low in THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the ingredient that gets you high.

He considers his "melatonic" strain a form of medicine, and has used it to treat his own chronic pain from work in the construction industry.

Bonin has a licence to grow — but not sell — marijuana. But that hasn't stopped him from offering up his unique strain as a tincture to local dispensaries — and the stores can't keep it on the shelves.