New report provides evidence that marijuana effects on health could be more beneficial than harmful. A cancer patient from Canada claimed cannabis oil effectively treated the wound caused by his disease that other drugs failed to treat.

The 44-year-old patient suffered from oral cancer. The disease caused a large hole on his cheek which the cannabis oil reportedly helped to slightly reduce the size.

The drug also reduced the pain caused by the wound. Previous studies already showed marijuana effects could treat pain caused by cancer.

'So often in government we are reacting to things, instead of getting in front of things'

The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is already working on a policy to deal with the impact that legalized marijuana could have in the workplace.

The federal government has promised to table legislation this spring but it could take much longer for the bill to be studied and eventually passed into law.

"This is coming at us now, this is going to happen, there is going to be legalization of marijuana," said chamber CEO Janet Riopel.

"So this is something that has very much hit our radar, and especially in safety-sensitive workplaces, employers have said marijuana use is inconsistent with safe work places."

Two more licensed medical marijuana producers have voluntarily recalled hundreds of grams of the drug after traces of a controversial pesticide banned in Canada were detected in their supply, raising questions about Ottawa’s oversight of an industry expected to explode with the upcoming legalization of cannabis.

Last week, Organigram, a publicly traded grower based in Moncton, expanded a Dec. 28 recall of a small amount of product to include almost all of its cannabis buds and oils produced in 2016.

The cannabis industry has made incredible strides over the last two years as scientific research continues to support the plant’s vast medical applications.

Although the biotech sector will be one of the greatest beneficiaries of the burgeoning cannabis industry, companies levered to the health and wellness side of the business will also benefit as they continue to develop new products and supplements that support healthy living. 

Canada marijuana legalization is the next big growth catalyst for marijuana stocks. That's because only 13% of the $6.7 billion in marijuana sales in North America in 2016 were from Canada.

But that will change in 2017…

As part of his 2015 campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised marijuana reform in Canada. That's because the majority of Canadians want recreational marijuana use legalized.

In a poll conducted during the summer of 2016, 69% of participants either supported or somewhat supported legalized recreational marijuana.

Only 26% were opposed or somewhat opposed.

Nothing evokes passionate debate in the cannabis community like the threat of big business taking over. The arguments against big marijuana fill the internet. The heartfelt plea to preserve small farms is echoed throughout the US, Canada, and Jamaica. At the Marijuana Business Conference in Las Vegas last November there was even a debate dedicated to arguing which was better: Craft Cannabis vs Big Marijuana.

But this should never have been an either or statement. Is Big Business with Big Money going to jump in on the Marijuana Green Rush? Absolutely! Is that the beginning of the end of small craft farmers? Not in a million years!

Melissa Etheridge, one of rock music’s great female icons, was announced Tuesday as a keynote speaker for Canada’s leading cannabis industry business event, O’Cannabiz Conference and Expo.

Etheridge is a cannabis entrepreneur and activist who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Twelve years later, she’s cancer-free and says her battle was made easier by using marijuana.

The Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation did not say, “create a marijuana marketing board.” Yet its recommendations would, if implemented, effectively impose a supply management system on cannabis. Suppliers would be licensed, and subject to production limits. These controls would be set so as to “align supply with likely demand.”

A marijuana marketing board would protect existing producers, and keep prices high. For the Task Force, this was precisely the point. They wanted to encourage “market diversity,” create “a space for smaller-scale production” and prevent “the development of monopolies or large conglomerates.”

PERTH researchers are to test whether medical cannabis can pave a breakthrough in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal diseases on the planet.

Curtin University’s School of Biomedical Sciences is poised to start testing cannabis formulations against human pancreatic cell cancer lines grown in the laboratory.

The project is in collaboration with Zelda Therapeutics, a Perth-based biopharmaceutical company, which will import the cannabis from Canada.

The research will examine the usefulness of cannabis formulations as standalone treatments and in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs, such as Abraxane.

Don’t look now but grandpa might be sparking a doobie.

A Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) survey has shown that not only is marijuana use up among Ontario adults aged 18 and over, it has also increased in people aged 50 and over — rising from 3% in 1977 to 23% in 2015.

CAMH Dr. Robert Mann said the province’s pot users are definitely aging.

“The people who started using cannabis when they were teenagers, the baby boom generation, now that that group is getting older, they’re keeping their habits with them,” he said.

That sounds a lot like our American neighbours.

The Washington Post recently reported on a study showing that marijuana use has gone up “significantly” in the last decade among Americans over age 50.