Tantalus Labs announces today that it has received the first Water License issued to a cannabis company in British Columbia. Furnished under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA), the license showcases Tantalus Labs' commitment to effective groundwater resource management and sustainably produced cannabis.

Tantalus Labs utilizes specialized sungrown cultivation technology, natural odour filtration, and an innovative rainwater collection and filtration system. The team is working to establish its facility, SunLab, as an industry leader in reducing the environmental impact of cannabis production.

SunLab was developed to provide plants with the purest natural inputs of water, nutrients, air, and sunlight, at the lowest environmental impact.

A medical marijuana supplier says it has broken ground in Leduc County, south of Edmonton, on what will be the world's largest legal pot grow operation.

"Our objectives are very clear: to build the largest production capacity, with the highest production quality and the lowest production cost," Steve Dobler, president of Aurora Cannabis Inc., said in a news release.

Aurora is building a 800,000-sq.-ft. production facility — larger than 16 football fields — on 30 acres of leased land in the county.

The company boasts "Aurora Sky" will be the largest, most advanced and most automated cannabis production facility in the world, capable of producing in excess of 100,000 kilograms of high quality marijuana per year.

The key recommendation of the panel charged with outlining the framework for Canada’s legal marijuana regime is that the system should be geared toward getting rid of the $7-billion-a year black market.

Sources familiar with the report, which is expected to be made public Dec. 21, say all the other recommendations flow from that guiding principle.

Provinces will set the legal age for marijuana consumption, but the report is likely to recommend the limit be the age of majority — 18 in six provinces; 19 in B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the three territories — which would keep many young people from turning to criminal sources. (The Canadian Medical Association has recommended an age limit of 21, with limits on the quantity and potency.)

Justin Trudeau’s task force to legalize marijuana has completed its report on the issue and said it will be released to the public sometime before Christmas.

While Vancouver dispensary operators anxiously wait to learn if they’ll be allowed to remain in business once a new legal framework takes effect, the National Post has published an article that claims to reveal some of what is contained in the document.

By Michael Berger

Activity within the cannabis industry is accelerating…quickly.

From the first initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange to the largest acquisition of a Canadian medical cannabis producer, yesterday was a wild day for the cannabis industry. 

Canada’s new legal marijuana regime is expected to feature a mishmash of provincial rules and a heavily regulated production system that will initially favour existing producers of medical cannabis, sources say.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, who leads a panel outlining a framework for the system, gave her report to the government on Wednesday, offering recommendations on how marijuana should be legally produced and sold and how it could be consumed and by whom.

The report from Ms. McLellan’s task force, which included medical, academic and law-enforcement experts – still has to be translated from English into French before being made public in coming weeks.

A new report claims the UK government should legalise marijuana because it's “the only solution to crime and addiction problems”.

The strongly-worded study - titled The Tide Effect: How the World is Changing its Mind on Cannabis - was produced by the nonpartisan Adam Smith Institute and has the backing of several cross-party MPs including former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.

Conservative MPs pressed the government hard Wednesday on a spike in trading in marijuana company stocks two weeks ago, alleging the Liberals may have leaked an upcoming report into legal weed.

On Nov. 16, the TSX halted trading on six different medical marijuana companies over the course of the day -- some of them several times. The halts were automatically triggered by wild swings in prices.

Conservative MP Alex Nuttall says those trading surges make him suspect somebody leaked a report by a federal task force studying how to legalize recreational pot use.

Canada’s task force on legalizing pot concluded its highly-anticipated report for the federal government Wednesday, but some marijuana producers believe pot-watchers need to chill expectations for legal recreational sales any time soon.

“It’s a long path to legalization,” said Brendan Kennedy, CEO of private equity firm Privateer Holdings, which has a global portfolio of marijuana-focused investments. He will outline his thoughts on the road ahead for legalized marijuana Thursday in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada.

Aurora Cannabis says it has started construction on a production facility in Leduc County that will be the size of 16 football fields when completed.

The 800,000-square-foot greenhouse, known as Aurora Sky, will be the largest of its kind, capable of producing 100,000 kilograms of cannabis annually, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement Wednesday. 

Construction is expected to be completed by October 2017, it said. The licensed medical marijuana producer already operates a 55,000-square-foot cannabis production plant near Cremona that could also be expanding.