With months left before Canada becomes the first country in the G7 to fully legalise marijuana, members of the country’s Liberal party, led federally by Justin Trudeau, are calling on their government to go one step further and decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit drugs.

How does medical marijuana help glaucoma patients? The answer is multi-layered and complex.

One of the many uses of medical marijuana is its use as a treatment for glaucoma.

This optic nerve condition can lead to loss of vision or blindness without medical assistance. Marijuana has long been hailed for its ability to reduce eye pressure, which causes glaucoma. Here we explore the question: How does medical marijuana help glaucoma patients?

What Is Glaucoma?

It’s a question that isn’t brought up often but still warrants investigation. Does cannabis affect your immune system?

Scientific research is proving more and more medical uses for cannabis. Experts cite medical marijuana as an effective treatment to use in conjunction with other medications, often to decrease their side effects.

Aurora Cannabis Inc., CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. and CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings, Inc., announced today that further to the CanniMed/CTT news release of February 17, 2017, the companies have entered into a three-way agreement that provides Aurora, through its ownership of CanniMed, with joint exclusivity on the distribution in Canada of CTT's novel, patented drug delivery technologies.

This collaboration includes the licensing by CTT to CanniMed and Aurora of six patents related to cannabinoid delivery for pain management that will enable CanniMed and Aurora to exclusively develop and commercialize this unique, sub-lingual (beneath the tongue) wafer, drug delivery system in Canada.

Israel’s Together has agreed to sell 5 tonnes of cannabis oil to an unnamed Canadian company that will potentially bring revenue of hundreds of millions of shekels.

The Canadian company will buy from Together subsidiary Globus Pharma 50 tonnes of dried inflorescences of cannabis each year, which is equivalent to five tonnes of medical cannabis oil.

The two companies will also collaborate in the field of research and development and promoting technologies in the medical cannabis sector. They have estimated sales will amount to $3.17 to $4.7 per gram of inflorescence.

Danielle Jackson, a cannatherapy consultant and edutainer also known as Miz D, says the legalization of cannabis will provide opportunities for women to show leadership through compassion. Jackson said there are therapeutic uses for cannabis for baby boomers and seniors. 

The budding cannabis industry presents opportunities for women and people looking to use their experience with cannabis when it becomes legalized in Canada later this year.

That’s according to those in the industry at the CannabisCon job fair held at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Saturday.

Saskatchewan urban and rural municipalities will follow federal framework for how to manage marijuana legalization in the coming months.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities released a guide to legalization on Monday, aimed at helping local governments identify challenges and regulatory options when marijuana is legalized later this year. The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities say they will follow the FCM’s guide in bringing marijuana legalization to the province.

"With the legalization of cannabis imminent, rural municipalities have many unanswered questions," said SARM President Ray Orb in a news release. "The guide should assist municipalities in filling this information gap."

As a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana works its way through the Canadian Parliament, the government is gearing up to track cannabis consumption more closely than it has before.

Statistics Canada has begun to do city-scale drug screening by monitoring what Canadians flush down the toilet.

Six cities have agreed to contribute samples from the place where all drains congregate — their wastewater treatment plants. Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver and Surrey in British Columbia; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, will participate. All told, the network would capture data on drug use from about a quarter of Canada's total 36 million inhabitants.

Later this week a familiar story will play out when a private medical marijuana company, Canntab Therapeutics Limited, merges with a shell, Telferscot Resources Inc., and starts trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange, thereby providing investors with yet another way to play the marijuana industry.

But this transaction is different in a couple of ways: first it will bring to an end the seven-year hunt by Telferscot — which went public in 2011 as a mineral exploration company — to find either a permanent partner or a permanent business.

As cannabis legalization draws closer to becoming law in Canada, the University of Ottawa says its time to start preparing Canadian lawyers to tackle the new rules and regulations for recreational marijuana, writes Calvin Hughes.