Just weeks before Canada is expected to legalize cannabis use across the country, the second annual MNP O’Cannabiz Conference and Expo is ready to take place June 7-9 at the International Centre in Toronto.

Recently voted the number one cannabis conference in Canada by High! Canada Magazine, O’Cannabiz will feature over 100 industry speakers from across North America, as well as a variety of workshops and seminars. Over 200 vendors will showcase their services and merchandise on the exhibition floor.

A new report on Cannabis consumption for Canadians by Deloitte Consultants, suggests Canadians will be looking for the good stuff and expert advice in a retailer.

The world is watching as Canada steps into the spotlight as the first G7 country to legalize recreational cannabis nationwide.

Questions that Canadians are mulling over include – What will the legal cannabis market look like?  – How fast will it grow?  – How will public officials balance health, safety, and revenue priorities?  – And who’s going to be buying?

But BYOP gardens won't be the cash cows that beer gardens have been.

You've cut loose to the music. You've danced up a storm. You've been to the beer gardens, but are you ready for a pot gardens?

With the legalization of cannabis fast approaching, our city and society are facing some debates over, well, dubage.

A host of Calgary summer festivals are gearing up to throw open their gates and welcome thousands of patrons to outdoor events that combine every conceivable musical genre, fireworks, culinary delight and culture. But there's the question of where legalized weed fits into all this summertime frivolity?

The Senate wants to ensure that organized crime doesn't use offshore tax havens to wind up secretly controlling the recreational marijuana market in Canada once cannabis is legalized.

Senators voted 45-29 on Tuesday to amend the Liberal government's cannabis legalization bill to require that any company licensed to grow marijuana must publicly disclose all its shareholders or executive members who are not based in Canada.

They also approved, by a close vote of 39-36, another amendment that would specify that police who seize cannabis plants don't have to keep them alive.

That brings to 43 the number of amendments the Senate has so far approved to Bill C-45. And there are likely to be more before the bill is put to final vote in the upper house on Thursday.

ABATTIS BIOCEUTICALS CORP. (CSE:ATT; OTC:ATTBF) ("Abattis") and BLOCKSTRAIN TECHNOLOGY CORP. ("BLOCKStrain") (TSXV: DNAX.V) are pleased to announce that they have signed a letter of intent (the "LOI") to integrate BLOCKStrain's proprietary technology into Abattis's  product and services ecosystem. Through their collaboration, the parties hope to enable Abattis clients to instantly arrange for sales, shipping, testing and analysis of Abattis products and give clients comprehensive visibility over such products over their entire lifecycles.

Medical Marijuana Producer Assessing Their Contact Center Operations in Advance of the Introduction of Recreational Cannabis

Taylor Reach Group is conducting an in-depth analysis of people, process, technologies and the ‘thousand moving parts’ within one of Canada’s Medical Marijuana Producer’s Contact Center to support the increasing contact volumes and establish a prescriptive approach for optimizing operations.

The Taylor Reach Strategic Assessment will enable scalability through the analysis of people, process and technologies to establish a prescriptive approach for optimizing operations

Cubic Health Inc. has introduced a risk management program aimed at helping plan sponsors with the many considerations for covering medical marijuana in their benefits plans.

The program uses claims data from the past two or three years to provide evidence-based education that’s tailored to a plan sponsor’s industry and workforce. It also includes a tailored risk assessment for each benefits plan that quantifies and anticipates its exposure to legitimate claims for medical cannabis over the next two years, according to Mike Sullivan, chief executive officer at Cubic Health.

CEO says company interested in rivals with provincial supply contracts and companies with technology to create new pot products — even if they hail from other industries.

Expect more deals in Canada’s burgeoning marijuana sector.

Quebec’s largest producer Hydropothecary Corp. is exploring acquisitions to broaden its offerings or distribution footprint, according to Chief Executive Officer Sebastien St. Louis. It’s interested in rivals with provincial supply contracts as well as companies with technology to create new pot products — even if they hail from other industries, he said.

Despite ongoing uncertainty over when cannabis will officially become legal, Premier Rachel Notley says the Alberta government will be ready to roll when it comes to regulating and selling legal weed.

Bolstering the premier’s claim, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission says its online site for cannabis sales has staff and suppliers, and could be operational by the end of the month, while more than 600 applications for private pot shops have come in to the province.

Between $500M and $1B of those sales expected to be illegal, report says.

After cannabis is legalized throughout Canada later this year, Canadians are expected to increase their consumption of the drug by up to 35 per cent and spend as much as $7 billion on legal and illegal sales in 2019.

Accounting firm Deloitte makes those predictions in a new report based on an online survey of 1,500 adults living in Canada's 10 provinces conducted between March 6 and March 20. The survey didn't include residents of territories.

Legal cannabis sales are expected to reach up to $4.34 billion, while illegal sales could be anywhere from $510 million to $1.04 billion, and medical cannabis could account for between $770 million and $1.79 billion of the market, the report says.