Drivers heading south on the Pat Bay are seeing a new sign this week, as an electronic billboard has begun carrying a blunt message. 

“A euphoric shopping experience!,” exclaims one variation of the ad for “The Great Canadian Canna Mall,” a Victoria business billing itself as the country’s first marijuana mall.

Four pot-related businesses have now moved into the former Gazzola Tile store at the corner of Quadra and Balmoral streets, and partner Steve Omelus says three more will join them by the end of the month, with more space still available for lease.

“We are looking at taking over the whole building that will likely include a canna spa an infused restaurant [or] pizzeria,” he said.

Imagine a marijuana grow-op in a greenhouse the size of ten Canadian football fields.

That’s what Vancouver-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. is aiming to build in central Alberta, a 600,000-sq.-ft. facility with the capacity to produce up to an estimated 70,000 kg. of cannabis once it begins production, expected by the summer of 2018.

It could become the country’s largest producer, though Ontario-based Aphria Inc. recently bought a swath of land capable of holding a million sq.-ft. of production space, for $6.5 million.

Aurora, currently Alberta’s only licensed producer of medical marijuana, already operates a sprawling 55,200 sq.-ft. facility in Cremona, northwest of Calgary.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's promise to legalize marijuana has grabbed the attention of many pot entrepreneurs — including Whoopi Goldberg, who's eyeing Canada as a potential market for her line of cannabis-infused menstrual pain products.

Goldberg's product line, which includes a THC tincture, a topical body rub, medicated bath salts and cannabis-infused cacao, is available only to medical marijuana patients in California.

But the American comedian and talk-show host said she'd like to change that.

"It's going to take a minute," Goldberg said Monday in an interview, noting that making the products available north of the border will require overcoming a number of regulatory hurdles.

"You have to go through lots of different conversations."

Companies in Washington and Colorado are seeing green thanks to the legalization of marijuana. Now Canada is on the onset of a marijuana boom. Bloomberg's Michael Bancroft visited one pot producer blending old-fashioned farming techniques with big data to create new strains to treat patients.

The Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) comes into effect today. In essence this allows Canadian medical marijuana patients to grow their own or select an independent grower to grow for them, rather than by purchasing through large scale licensed producers. This is the federal government’s response to the Supreme Court ruling that made affordable access to cannabis medicine a human right.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize marijuana has grabbed the attention of many pot entrepreneurs — including Whoopi Goldberg, who’s eyeing Canada as a potential market for her line of cannabis-infused menstrual pain products.

Goldberg’s product line, which includes a THC tincture, a topical body rub, medicated bath salts and cannabis-infused cacao, is available only to medical marijuana patients in California.

But the American comedian and talk-show host said she’d like to change that.

“It’s going to take a minute,” Goldberg said Monday in an interview, noting that making the products available north of the border will require overcoming a number of regulatory hurdles.

“You have to go through lots of different conversations.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to dismiss questions about decriminalizing cannabis as an interim step toward legalization, saying it would leave kids more vulnerable to the drug and keep the sector in the hands of organized crime.

"If you decriminalize it, you make it easier for kids to access it," said Trudeau in a recent interview with Ben Mulroney of CTV's, Your Morning. "Decriminalize it, you continue to have organized crime controlling marijuana. That is counter to why we want to do it. That is why decriminalization has never been interesting to us.”

Rolling a five pointed joint is one innovation, but science is finding many new high-tech ways to help cannabis patients.

When it comes to technological developments in the widely varied cannabis industry, some come about due to the natural instinct to innovate, and some come about as a necessity to adapt with the ever-changing landscape that is the medical and recreational cannabis space. Over the years, businesses, researchers, advocates, and everyone in between has had their crack at assisting in ushering in new technologies and practices.

Medical life science company, Medlab Clinical Limited (ASX:MDC), has signed a significant cannabis supply agreement with Canadian licenced producer of medical marijuana, Aphria Inc. (TSX VENTURE:APH)(OTCQB:APHQF). Cannabis plant species, yields and a novel extraction process have been established in collaboration between Medlab and Aphria, allowing Aphria to produce for Medlab in a large scale supply.

The combination of the two most known cannabis extracts required by Medlab, CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), produces in excess of 70 per cent active ingredient for both compounds, making it one of the most potent compounds known.

They may call it weed, but what grows in Laurie MacEachern’s plot is more like the lush fields of corn near her rural home, southeast of Ottawa, than the goldenrod and wild parsnip in the ditch. 

“Welcome to my garden,” she tells a rare recent visitor, surveying rows of luxuriant green plants that will be ready to harvest next month.

In an area the size of a suburban backyard, the 57-year-old grandmother grows enough medical cannabis to last her a year.