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A quick survey of recent headlines around the legalization discussion, even the federal task force's press conference, reveals a conspicuous absence: medical cannabis and the patients who rely on it.

The current debate and coverage focuses on legalization and regulation combining the interests of everyone from recreational users to growers to government. Without the interests of patients represented in this debate, we run the risk of establishing a future framework that is set up to fail and will require further modification.

The cannabis industry is full of healers, individuals who set out to solve significant medical problems and found marijuana to be the natural solution.

One cannabis entrepreneur based in Toronto aptly named Charlene Freedom, is a pioneer in the oil and cream sector, and she plans on expanding her business as the marijuana community grows over the crumbled walls of prohibition.

They don’t own a car or a computer. They don’t even have a phone.

The lightweight panels are already being tested in a few high-end cars, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz.

With a little elbow grease and a lot of ingenuity, a new Alberta business is churning out biodegradable auto parts made from wood, hemp and flax.

The BioComposites Group plant, located on Drayton Valley's Bio-Mile, uses a one-of-a-kind manufacturing process to make door panels, kick pads, cup holders and dashboard panels. 

"We take waste wood fibre and waste agricultural fibers, and then needle them together with a process that creates a mat that is used for interior panels," said Dan Madlung, CEO and co-owner of BioComposites Group.

How – and why – online cannabis marketplaces will replace the black market.

The first thing ever bought or sold online was a bag of cannabis.

The deal went down in 1971. Decades before eBay or Amazon, back in the days when data was delivered in a shrieking telephonic trickle rather than a broadband light beam, the first thing ever traded online was cannabis.

Illegal pot sales are turning into a high earner for governments.

Don Briere’s national chain of renegade retail shops remitted $688,449 in GST/HST collected from December to May on exploding sales of unlicensed marijuana, hashish and cannabis-laced edibles to relieve aches and pains.

Briere remitted $286,452 more in federal payroll taxes and employer contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan for 2015. Then there’s personal income tax, corporate tax, store property taxes, workers’ compensation and more.

His illegal business rivals are expected to generate oodles more for government.

Anyone suffering from fibromyalgia will tell you it can be devastating. On some days, simple chores like doing laundry or making breakfast can be exhausting, if not downright impossible. Just ask Teri Robnett, a Denver-based medical marijuana patient's rights advocate who runs the Rx MaryJane blog:

“There used to be days that I didn’t feel like I could get through the day. I just wanted to cry and go back to bed.”

There are currently 31 federally licensed medical cannabis producers in Canada under Health Canada's Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR).

Canada has announced plans to legalize recreational cannabis in spring 2017. Before recreational cannabis is legalized, we expect to see consolidation within the industry.

Legalization Plans Make Capital Easier to Access

The government’s plan to legalize cannabis has made several licensed medical cannabis producers attractive investment opportunities to institutional investors, hedge funds, and investments, banks.

You might remember the smoking Joe Camel from magazine ads and the chesterfield-touting Joe Canadian from beer ads, but there's a chance you'll never meet Joe Marijuana.

As the Liberal government prepares to introduce legislation next spring to legalize cannabis, it has asked a nine-member task force to look at what restrictions should be in place when it comes to marketing marijuana.

"Since marketing, advertising and promotion of marijuana would only serve to 'normalize' it in society and encourage and increase usage, it has been proposed that these should be strictly limited so as to dampen widespread use and reduce associated harms," reads the government's discussion paper on the issue.