Opposite a bleak government building in suburban Ottawa, Canada, a barebones “cannabis clinic” – with just a cash register, jeweller’s scales and a glass counter – is doing a brisk trade. “Pirate! Muslim! Gangster! Yes! We all smoke!” shouts one teen as he high-fives the owner, Rohmi. He pockets his pungent bag and bounces out, giggling.

On the wall, there’s a menu listing today’s special: moonrocks – buds rolled in cannabis oil then dipped in powdered hash at C$40 (£24) a gram. There are cans of Canna Cola; potent, weed-laced gummy bears; a mound of gooey hashish smelling of dark chocolate, hops and pine resin.

Ottawa’s plan to legalize marijuana by next year could hit serious roadblocks across the country, as provinces and territories are expected to have different approaches to solving complicated policy issues such as where to sell cannabis and how much to tax the drug.

The government signalled this weekend it expects to roll out legislation before April 20 – a day cannabis is celebrated across the globe – and that the recreational use of the drug would reportedly be legalized by July 1, 2018.

Village Cannabis Dispensary and Canadian Green both targeted.

Police raided two pot shops in Toronto Tuesday evening.

One of the raids was at the former Cannabis Culture at 461 Church Street, now called Village Cannabis Dispensary.

The other raid was at Canadian Green at Bloor Street West and Landsowne Avenue, said Constable David Hopkinson of the Toronto Police Service.Hopkinson did not provide any information about how much marijuana was seized. He said charges are pending and investigations are still open.

The hunt is on for a new location for Vancouver’s 4/20 marijuana rally, starting in 2018.

Vancouver Councillor Adriane Carr is expected to introduce a motion Wednesday asking staff to find an appropriate non-residential site for the city’s largest cannabis rally, which draws more than 10,000 people annually and cost taxpayers $148,000 last year.

“The event is not going away,” said Carr. “For public safety and to ensure taxpayers aren’t burdened with costs of this event, it needs to be permitted, and it looks like the city has to take the lead.”

When it comes to Cannabis, the industry as a whole is expected to be one the biggest, outperformers of our lifetime. It is the end of marijuana prohibition after-all.

Some stats: 13% of U.S. adults admit to currently smoking pot on a regular basis, while 43% say they have at least tried it, according to a Gallup poll from 2016.

I would put money on these stat figures being largely incorrect, people tend to not like admitting certain things to strangers on the phone. You could probably safely double those numbers, which sounds more realistic to me.

Online sales could be one way recreational marijuana is sold after legalization.

Canada's biggest publicly traded marijuana company is readying a new online store to hawk its wares, in a move that hints at how legal marijuana sales might soon look.

Canopy Growth Corp., which owns the Tweed, Mettrum, and Bedrocan brands of medical marijuana, will launch the Tweed Main Street store in the first half of April.

Between them, the three brands have more than 50,000 registered clients, according to Canopy. Right now, those customers have to shop for their products separately, on each brand's individual website.

Fund will track medical marijuana companies.

Roughly two weeks before April 20, investors with a craving for marijuana exposure will have a new instrument with which to get it in their portfolios.

The first exchange-traded fund with a marijuana focus, the Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, has been conditionally approved for listing by the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is scheduled to debut on April 5 under the ticker symbol HMMJ. According to Horizon ETF Management, it will be the first ETF “that offers direct exposure to North American-listed stocks that are involved with medical marijuana bioengineering and production.”

No matter how far along we come in the quest for cannabis legalization, there are always detractors.

Even today, you can still find prohibitionists and cannabis market bears claiming that Denver dispensaries and going to get shut down and Canada will not approve legalization this year. It’s all just noise, but damn if it isn’t the kind of noise that annoys the shit out of me.

Kind of like Nickelback, but worse.

So I was quite pleased when I saw this tweet today …

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") (ACB.V) (ACBFF) ( Frankfurt : 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) is pleased to announce that it has committed to taking part in the initial public offering ("IPO") of Cann Group Limited ("Cann Group") on the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX") as the cornerstone investor, securing a 19.9% stake in Cann Group, the first company in Australia ever to be licenced for research and cultivation of medical cannabis for human use.

Government to announce marijuana will be legal by July 1, 2018.

Federal government ministers are keeping mum on the details of the Liberals' marijuana legalization plan, as provinces consider the legislative and regulatory burden that will fall to them when pot is legalized.

As CBC News first reported Sunday night, the Liberal government will announce legislation next month that will legalize marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018.