After more than a decade of confusion at Canada's airports, the country's air transport security authority is now providing guidance to passengers travelling with prescription cannabis.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority website, updated yesterday, now tells people travelling with prescription pot to be prepared to show medical documentation and that screening officers are obliged to call police to verify the paperwork. That is, unless the airport doesn't have officers on site.

Comedian, musician and pot activist Tommy Chong says he intends to keep "priming the pump" until marijuana is legalized across the United States and in Canada.

Chong, 78, said the introduction of legislation promised for next spring to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada could set an example for the United States, where a state-by-state approach isn't ideal.

Chong, who is scheduled to appear Thursday at the two-day International Cannabis Business Conference in Vancouver, said he hopes the next American president will legalize pot throughout the U.S. so states can rake in millions of dollars from taxing the drug.

California and five other states will vote on whether to legalize recreational marijuana this November. In addition, Arkansas and Florida will vote on whether to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. 

Marijuana usage is on the rise. 

Consider that over the last 30 days, the S&P 500 has fallen 2.5% from 2,186.5 to 2133. Yet over that same period, the North American Marijuana Index increased 42%. Investors might want to add marijuana stocks to their portfolios. 

The smell is unmistakable.

There must be a small mountain of pot lying somewhere in a back room of the storefront office on St-Laurent Blvd. That thick, skunky aroma — strong enough to trigger memories of a misspent youth — is apparent the moment patients are buzzed through the front door of Fondation Marijuana.

A whiteboard by the reception desk advertises strains with names like Grand Daddy Purps, Jean Guy and Blue Magic.

Despite the overwhelming smell, despite the fact that there are untold kilos of cannabis stored behind the sheetrock wall, the office has a distinctly sterile feel to it: medical forms, filing cabinets, a photocopier and two security cameras pointed toward the centre of the room.

The tell is in the tape, as they say. On Tuesday, the TSX Venture’s highest volume traders by dollar amount were all Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR)-licensed producers.

A Nova Scotia safety group is scrambling to get ready for the expected legalization of marijuana.

Injury-Free Nova Scotia is holding public meetings this month to discuss cannabis safety and how sales of it should be controlled, said Shirley Burdock, executive director of Injury-Free Nova Scotia, a group advocating for policy change around alcohol, tobacco, and gambling.

“There’s no need to argue ‘should we have it, should we not’ — it’s coming,” Burdock said.

“We’ve got to make sure that people understand, first of all, this is not the marijuana that we grew up with. It’s not the Cheech and Chong stuff. A lot of us, that’s how we understood it from the movies of the day.”

Master horticulturalist Francoise Levesque tends to the thousands of marijuana plants at Tilray, one of 35 federally licensed producers of medicinal marijuana that have brought pot growing “from the basement into the light.”

“We are pioneering, in a way, how to do things,” says Levesque, who was growing tomatoes before joining the Vancouver Island company.

But pioneering is rarely easy work.

Tilray won a coveted licence in 2014 for the previous Conservative government’s mail-order medical pot system, but, like many of the licensed producers, has since endured a boom-and-bust cycle.

Some time after next spring, Canadians will be able to legally buy marijuana for use purely for pleasure.

How will it be sold? That hasn’t been decided, and there’s a lot at stake for the potential players: a CIBC report earlier this year estimated the size of the national recreational cannabis market at up to $10 billion.

Everybody from existing licenced growers to public-sector unions, who would add members if provincial liquor store networks also sold pot, has weighed in. Revenue-hungry governments are hoping for the anticipated $5 billion in pot taxes.

Exemption even surprised the premier's office. 'Can anyone explain?' aide asked.

Ontario's Liberal government defended allowing medical marijuana users to vaporize anywhere by saying they had consulted "very broadly" – but emails show those consultations involved the input of just two people, The Canadian Press has learned.

Ultimately, the associate health minister had to defend the policy for just one day after the government backtracked on the policy within 24 hours. The emails, obtained through freedom-of-information legislation, show the premier's top staff members were both unaware of the new rule and confused by it.

At Vancouver’s next big weed get-together, you can expect less tie-dye and more suit-and-tie.

Organizers of the International Cannabis Business Conference this week at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver expect a crowd of 650 or more to attend over Thursday and Friday.

And with tickets to attend the conference running upwards of $600 each, the event might have more of a corporate feel than the average 4/20 rally.