A Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer is the first to get a Health Canada permit to grow cannabis using natural sunlight.

Tantalus Labs founder Dan Sutton says SunLab is the new generation of sustainable, natural and highly controlled infrastructure for growing weed.

“It’s sort of unreasonable to grow virtually any plant in an indoor, artificial environment where one is trying to replicate nature. We’re really proud of our knowledge or quality assurance, of processed standardization, of creating efficiencies and repeatability out of processes and systems in an agricultural environment.”

He adds it’s one-of-a-kind, and took five years to develop.

The mayors of Canada's biggest cities say they need a slice of the tax windfall from legal marijuana to cover what they describe as significant costs associated with enforcing a signature initiative from the federal Liberals.

They raised their concerns with cabinet ministers this week, pressing the case that some tax revenues from sale of the drug must filter down to cover costs associated with land-use issues, business licensing applications and enforcement once the purchase, sale and recreational use of the drug is no longer illegal.

A licensed marijuana producer on the outskirts of Duncan is poised to become one of the Cowichan Valley’s largest employers once the expansion of its new facility is complete.

Harvest One Cannabis Inc. currently grows more than 4,000 marijuana plants in its 16,000 square-foot space.

“We currently have 15 people on staff here and are currently growing as we expand,” said Michael Rykes, United Greeneries production manager. “We hope to have probably about 50 new people on the new site.”

The United Greeneries productions site will break ground on a greenhouse operation in the near future.

Once construction is complete, up to 100 jobs will hit the market starting at $20 an hour.

Germany is becoming a hotbed for Canadian cannabis producers and we think this trend is just getting started. 

Germany, the largest country in the European Union started 2017 by legalizing medical cannabis creating a major opportunity for cannabis businesses across the world. The legislation also will make cannabis available to people suffering from serious illnesses and available through health insurance plans.

These factors have led to a surge in the number of licensed Canadian medical cannabis producers focused on this market and we want to highlight some of the recent deals.

Aurora Makes Major Acquisition

While cannabis-related police incidents continue to make the news in other parts of the country (ahem, Toronto), the Vancouver Police Department has ignored Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's call to continue arrests for possession despite plans for legalization.

Instead, the VPD has said it's prioritized the city's overdose crisis.

Released last week, the department's annual report for 2016 reveals a significant drop in cannabis-related offences, from 861 in 2015 to 660 in 2016.

That's a decline of 24.1 percent.

Canada is now just 13 months away from making marijuana a legal drug for recreational consumption. What’s critical to the Trudeau government at this point is to ensure that come July 1st 2018, there will be a sufficient supply of weed on the legal market to meet the sudden rush of demand that’s expected.

So it was not altogether surprising when Health Canada recently announced that it would speed up the licensing process for the production of legal medical weed, in an attempt to ramp up cultivation ahead of next July.

Marijuana companies may have limited abilities to advertise after federal legislation is passed.

The Tragically Hip has announced a partnership with medical marijuana company Newstrike.

"After much discussion and assessment on our part, we've decided that this company — and the many creative people in it — are a perfect fit for The Hip," said the band in a news release.

The company says the band members are "significant investors" in Newstrike, which will begin trading on the TSX in June under the new symbol HIP. The band will also play a role in the company's branding efforts.

WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (“WeedMD” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has officially begun registering patients and fulfilling orders through its online store. The WeedMD team has passionately worked towards this goal for the past three years, and looks forward to meeting the rapidly growing demand for medical cannabis. Starting pre-registration in May, the Company was fortunate enough to develop a wait list of over 1,000 patients, and plans to leverage its clinic relationships to further accelerate enrollment. 

Canada is emerging as an early global leader in the high-growth cannabis industry.

Medical cannabis has been legal in the country of 30 million since 2001. Then, in 2014, Canada implemented sweeping regulatory changes that set the stage for its young cannabis industry to prosper. Since then, the industry has been booming. Sales topped $1 billion in 2016.

Today, Canada's high-growth cannabis industry is about to get another huge boost. Canada just announced plans to legalize recreational cannabis by July of 2018. That would make Canada the first developed country in the world to legalize both medical and recreational cannabis.

Powerful pot strains put developing brains of young people at risk, CMAJ editorial says.

Marijuana legalization will harm the health of youth unless major changes to the proposed law are made to protect their developing brains, a medical journal editorial says.

Dr. Diane Kelsall, interim editor in chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says Bill C-45 fails to safeguard vulnerable youth.

"There are a number of things in the legislation that are truly worrisome," Kelsall said in an interview. "If the intent is truly a public health approach and to protect our youth this legislation is not doing it."