Local reaction is starting to roll in after the federal government announced its plans for the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Pickering resident Marko Ivancicevic is a long-time marijuana activist in Durham and a partner in Cannabis Consultants of Canada, a company that assists medical marijuana users with obtaining authorization to possess and produce cannabis legally.

He welcomed the government's announcement.

"Obviously, like many Canadians I'm happy youth will not be saddled with simple possession charges, as well as any other individuals with simple possession charges," he said.

The government has said the new legislation will kick in no later than July 2018, but marijuana remains illegal until then except for medical marijuana users.

The time has come for British Columbia to take the lead on the marijuana legalization process — according to one medical marijuana producer.

The long-awaited federal marijuana legalization bill being unveiled today, 

The legalization bill will consider how marijuana will be taxed, regulated and sold safely, but many critics say it will still leave a lot of details to the provinces — especially on how these policies will be enacted.

For some, the bill is a huge entrepreneurial opportunity.

The federal Liberal government is expected to table legislation to legalize recreational marijuana on Thursday (April 13), exactly one week ahead of the world’s annual 4/20 celebration of all things cannabis.

The proposed law will be debated in Parliament. Then it’s likely that each province and territory will require some time to work out regulatory details.

In the meantime, long-time advocates for marijuana reform want to know if Ottawa has any plans to provide relief on past offences.

Ottawa will have to launch a series of negotiations as soon as it tables its long-awaited bill to legalize marijuana on Thursday, needing to strike deals with the Senate, the provinces and the U.S. government in its bid to lift the 94-year-old prohibition on the drug.

For starters, the Liberals will need to adopt a raft of legislative changes in the House of Commons, where they have a solid majority, but also through an independent Senate that is increasingly asserting its desire to study and amend government bills.

Insiders at two of Canada’s largest marijuana companies are cashing in on the industry’s reefer madness before the country introduces its plans for legalized recreational pot.

Since March 1, five directors, officers and board members with Canopy Growth Corp. sold 3.2 million shares worth at least C$7.5 million ($5.7 million), including Chief Executive Officer Bruce Linton, who sold C$3.7 million worth of his holdings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Between March 1 and April 10, eight executives and the chief cultivator for Aurora Cannabis Inc. sold a total of 4.9 million shares worth C$11.8 million, data show.

Organized crime groups, including the Hells Angels, have managed to obtain legal personal production licences for medical marijuana, only to turn around and illegally sell the product across the country, CBC news has learned.

Several sources described to CBC how organized crime groups have obtained personal grow licences and are using them to try to hamper police attempts to shut down their operations.

CBC is not naming the sources, who fear reprisal from criminal groups or worry about interfering in criminal investigations. 

"We often don't have the the resources to chase down the true identities behind the licences," said one source.

A foreign investor is expressing concern that Jamaica’s delay in establishing a medical ganja industry is providing other countries with the advantage to maximise from the opportunities to cement themselves in the export trade.

Florida-based investor Mark Santiago, who has applied to the Cannabis Licensing Authority for a licence to operate a vertically integrated ganja business, feels that the disunity in communication is a major hold-up in the industry.

“I believe that the foot dragging is because of our lack of communication,” Santiago argued.

He was speaking to the Jamaica Observer at the MoBay Invest Conference put on by the Montego Bay Chamber of Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Friday.

“I don’t think that we should be legalizing this drug; this is a dangerous drug and I don’t want it in the hands of children,” said Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch.

Marijuana is a “dangerous drug,” Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch said Tuesday as she promised to undo the Liberal government’s efforts to legalize it, should she become her party’s leader and eventually prime minister.

There are too many public health and safety concerns surrounding marijuana for it to be legal, Leitch told The Canadian Press as the government prepares to table legislation later this week to legalize and regulate its sale.

The federal government is getting ready to drastically speed up its licensing process to increase the numbers of companies that are authorized to produce marijuana for the recreational market that will open up in the first half of 2018, sources said.

A senior federal official said that in addition to tabling legislation to legalize marijuana on Thursday, the federal government will announce a push to authorize new producers of marijuana. At this point, there are 42 companies that have the necessary authorizations from Health Canada to produce marijuana for medical purposes across the country.

The chief executive of Canada’s highest-valued marijuana company expects the government to impose strict regulations on packaging and advertising when it legalizes recreational use.