Premiers say they want quick action from the federal government on the legalization of marijuana.

Speaking before the start of their annual meeting in Whitehorse, several provincial leaders say they want Ottawa to move on the issue to prevent a patchwork of enforcement and distribution.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says he plans to raise the issue at the meeting.

He says several premiers have expressed informal concerns to him.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark says she wants to see federal laws so her province can focus on safety.

Saskatchewan's Brad Wall says he wants to ensure consistent enforcement across Canada.

A First Nations band in Gaspé is hoping a proposed medical marijuana production plant in nearby Atholville, N.B., will translate into jobs for its members.

The Listuguj band council held an information session Tuesday evening on its potential partnership with the company behind the project, Zenabis.

Zenabis purchased the old Atlantic Yarns facility in Atholville in 2014 and has been trying to get the business off the ground ever since.

Zenabis has promised to create 400 jobs in the Campbellton area. (CBC)

But Health Canada has delayed approving the medical marijuana production licence, which has thrown the project into doubt, along with the 400 jobs its first phase is expected to create.

In another sign that Canada’s booming marijuana industry has gone corporate, dozens of companies have registered as paid lobbyists ahead of Ottawa’s plan to legalize the drug’s recreational use next spring.

As of March 19, the federal government’s lobbyist registry listed 88 paid positions with interests in marijuana or cannabis. The companies named range from small, independent businesses like Vancouver’s Eden Medicinal Society to large corporations, including the Loblaws chain of more than 2,000 supermarkets across Canada.

There are growing calls to shut down or regulate Ottawa’s budding marijuana dispensary business, as new — and illegal — storefronts pop up around the city.

Since the beginning of July, five more dispensaries have opened or plan to shortly, boosting the number in the city to nine. They are part of a wave of marijuana stores that have been opening across the country, operating in defiance of federal drug laws.

Mark Ware was working with patients suffering from a painful blood disease in the late 1990s when he noticed that many of them were self-medicating. The sickle cell anemia research clinic where he was working was in Jamaica, and the pain reliever of choice for a growing number of his patients was cannabis.

The episode put the British-born, Jamaica-raised doctor on the path that has made him a world-renowned expert on the use of cannabis in pain management.

Now based at McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Ware will turn his attention in coming months to the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. As a key member of a new task force, he will help the federal government to create a legal regime for all adult pot users.

A lawyer representing four dispensaries named in the latest City of Vancouver injunction applications says they plan to fight back.

Robert Laurie says Vancity Weeds, MMJ Canada, Red Med, and the Limelife dispensary will force the city to take them to court.

“My clients are really just wanting to remain open until there is some degree of certainty, and until that comes they’re going to remain open in defiance in the face of the law as a form of civil disobedience,” says Laurie.

All four dispensaries feel like their being unfairly muscled out of the market, according to Laurie, who says “the strategy by the city seems really an elimination strategy as opposed to a regulation policy.”

Cities and towns should get a piece of the $5 billion in expected revenue once marijuana is legalized in Canada, say municipal leaders around Ontario.

Making sure municipalities get their share of the cash will be a focus of several talks in Windsor next month when members of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario gather for their annual conference.

Towns and cities deserve to have more funding, considering they carry the load when it comes to policing and social services, explained Gary McNamara, Tecumseh Mayor and AMO president. 

New challenges

Legalizing marijuana will only add new challenges for municipalities, McNamara told CBC News.

Medlab is all set to give cannabis Australia human trials a boost as it has launched a $5.36 million equity raising. The cash will be mainly used for accelerating a medicinal cannabis human trial program at a leading Australian oncology research hospital. The marijuana-based pain management therapy will combine two cannabis compounds THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol).

Medlab’s shares last traded at 42 cents, way ahead of the year low of 16 cents. The 1-for-9 rights issue is at 30 cents a share, writes Business Insider Australia.

Drugged driving is a growing problem, police fear.

As pot dispensaries become more prevalent in Ottawa, there is growing concern about people driving while high.

In May, Canada’s leading drive-safe group held a series of meetings with new members of Parliament to discuss what it calls the need to implement better roadside testing technology, before legislation to legalize marijuana is passed.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving appealed to the government to do away with current drug-recognition evaluations, and implement “drug wipe” roadside saliva tests, similar to the Breathalyzer tests that detect alcohol, to tell on the spot whether a person is impaired by drugs.

The “discussion” paper about legalizing marijuana is out from the Liberal government.

When I first heard of the “legalization” task force, I envisioned Order-of-Canada quality people touring the country, listening to Canadians, acknowledging the terrible prohibition mistakes of the past, and pledging to find a new way forward past prohibition into the era—it's 2016, after all!—of autonomous adult choice in the matter of cannabis and our bodies.

I saw legalization as this: the government stops a failed policy of marijuana prohibition because it has needlessly given over two million Canadians criminal records since 1964.