Three municipalities in British Columbia want a stake in any tax revenue that the federal government collects from the legalization of marijuana.

Nelson, Duncan and Prince George put forward resolutions to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities asking it to put pressure on higher levels of government to ensure tax sharing with municipalities is considered by the federal task force investigating marijuana legalization and regulation.

With eight dispensaries open in Nelson, Mayor Deb Kozak said determining how to regulate and monitor the technically illicit businesses has required considerable city and police resources.

“There is a real cost attached to that and we are not realizing any revenues from (the marijuana) industry at this time,” Kozak said.

The presidential election is right around the corner and cannabis stocks are poised to benefit from this event as market sentiment improves with the opening of new state markets.

This November, a record number of states (at least nine) will have some type of cannabis initiative on the ballot. California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine will vote on recreational cannabis, while Florida, Arkansas, and North Dakota vote on medical cannabis.

The legal cannabis movement has created unprecedented opportunities for investors and this growth cycle will mint more millionaires than the tech boom. Investors looking for a new growth field need to take advantage of the cannabis sector as there will not be another growth opportunity like it for decades to come.

The Canadian Medical Association says 72 per cent of doctors who responded to a survey it conducted want the federal government to regulate THC levels in recreational marijuana.

A total of 788 doctors, or 19 per cent of the total number of doctors who received the online survey, responded to it earlier this summer, the group’s annual meeting heard Wednesday.

Dr. Jeff Blackmer, vice-president of medical professionalism at the association, said the survey was based on federal Health Minister Jane Philpott’s request for feedback from physicians.

“We really want to take a public health view to this and represent the views of physicians the same way we would on other issues, for example, smoking or alcohol use,” he told the meeting.

Despite new federal legislation making it easier for patients to grow marijuana at home, some medical specialists aren't so sure that's a good idea.

Dr. Doug Smith, a Fredericton specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, says while he's been prescribing marijuana for almost a decade and seen "quite a few remarkable stories of it being a life-changer," patients who grow their own cannabis might have less control over what they're getting.

Previously, patients looking to grow medical marijuana or get someone else to grow it for them could only get seeds and plants from Health Canada.

Montreal researchers have found a new role for cannabinoids. The active ingredient in marijuana — which is also naturally present in the human body — seems to improve night vision in vertebrates.

The study by a multidisciplinary team including researchers from the Montreal Neurological Institute looked at changes in tadpole retinas after exposure to cannabinoids.

“We didn’t believe what we were seeing — exactly the opposite of what we expected,” said neurologist Ed Ruthazer, of the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University, and the paper’s senior author. 

Wednesday’s release of Health Canada’s new medical cannabis regulations, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR for short) brings some big changes for patients. Perhaps the biggest is the reintroduction of statutes that allow Canadian patients to grow for themselves, or to designate someone to grow on their behalf.

B.C. municipalities are appealing for a share of future taxes to help cover the costs of regulating pot dispensaries, as marijuana looks set to become legal in Canada by next spring.

The cities of Duncan, Nelson and Prince George have each put forward resolutions to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention next month, suggesting the UBCM petition the federal government to provide local governments with a portion of future federal or provincial tax collected through marijuana sales and distribution.

After the Liberal government announced plans to legalize recreational pot use next spring, what started out as initial excitement turned into confusion as marijuana dispensaries started popping up across Toronto under the guise of providing more options for medical marijuana users.

While police shut down many of them, for medical marijuana patients, dispensaries were a welcome change from the inconvenient way they used to obtain their prescription.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked doctors for their opinions on the Liberals’ promised legalization of the recreational use of marijuana.

He’s about to hear an earful from them.

At one of the final sessions of the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in Vancouver on Wednesday, delegates aired their concerns. Among them: the fact that a psychoactive drug is being legitimized to the point where the public thinks it’s a benign substance; the fact marijuana affects brain development, not just in the young but into the 60s; that there is no solid evidence it is safe and effective as a medical treatment so using the term medical marijuana is a misnomer.

The government of New Brunswick is giving a proposed medical marijuana facility in the province a major financial boost — investing a total of $4 million into the operation.

The money comes from the Northern New Brunswick Economic Development Fund, through both Opportunities NB and the Regional Development Corporation who each invested $2 million.

The province says the medical marijuana project could create more than 200 full-time jobs in the northern New Brunswick town of Atholville by 2021.

“We understand how important job creation, education and health care are to New Brunswickers,” Premier Brian Gallant said in a release.