Legalized weed looks like a cash cow, and just like any other billion-dollar industry, it will be heavily regulated

In one episode of HBO's hit show The Wire, Stringer Bell, the brutal head of a Baltimore heroin cartel, demands that his meetings about the day-to-day operations of the "game" be run in strict compliance with Robert's Rules of Order: the street-corner pushers have to be recognized by the chair before speaking. Though the scene seemed outlandish, perhaps it was ahead of its time.

The new collaboration will allow both companies to ensure the widest range of cannabis-related news and information reaches a rapidly-growing global audience.

The WeedLife Network, a business social network and digital marketplace with more than 40 websites and app tools developed for the cannabis industry, is announcing an information partnership with 420Intel.com – as part of the network’s mission to rapidly distribute essential information to those interested in the ever-developing legal cannabis industry.

The Liberal government has tapped former cabinet minister Anne McLellan to head a long-awaited task force that will examine the best way to legalize marijuana, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

It will consult experts and others on a framework for the proposed legislation, including how to regulate and tax the drug. The panel will be asked to report back by the first week of November, sources say, as the government hopes to table its legislation in the spring.The task force will be unveiled before Parliament breaks for the summer, sources have confirmed, and report to Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief and current parliamentary secretary who is the Trudeau government’s point person on marijuana.

A decision by the Sun Life insurance company to treat medical marijuana users the same as non-smokers when applying for life insurance is a sign the industry is listening to patients, a marijuana advocate advocate says.

Jonathan Zaid is a University of Waterloo student who uses medical marijuana for persistent headaches, which he started getting when he was 14.

He has been pushing for insurance companies to recognize using cannabis for medical reasons is not the same as smoking cigarettes, and medical marijuana users should not be penalized for being smokers.

In the market for 350 marijuana grow lights, 50 air ventilators or two dozen giant fans? You're in luck.

More than $1 million worth of equipment inside a defunct medical cannabis producer's former 6,100 square-metre facility in Richmond, B.C., will be auctioned off on Thursday.

MediJean's closure draws attention to the costly risks of launching a pot-production business, observers say.

Former chief operating officer Chris Dollard said he left the company before it closed, but he believes Health Canada rejected its application to be a licensed producer.

"We were waiting, waiting, waiting. That's what Health Canada does. They keep you waiting until you run out of money," he said. "It's pretty clear that if they had been accepted, they'd be in business."

With marijuana legalization on the horizon in Canada, Edmontonians are starting explore ways they can get involved in what could be a multi-billion dollar industry.

Women Grow Edmonton is already looking at how female entrepreneurs, in particular, can get in on the green.

The group launched a month ago, with the goal of starting a conversation on the future of legal cannabis in Edmonton.

But chair Alison McMahon says it's already creating a buzz.

Legal marijuana is already a global industry and the U.S. is behind the curve.

When you think of the legal marijuana industry, you think of Colorado and California. But marijuana is not uniquely American, nor is the legalization movement.

We know that 43 illegal medical marijuana dispensaries in Toronto were raided by police May 26. But what led to shut-downs is a matter of debate for within the medical marijuana community of dispensaries, activists, and licensed producers (LP's). 

More than one-fifth of the money paid to veterans by the federal government for prescribed drugs in the fiscal year 2015-16 went toward medical cannabis. That's up from just 0.5 per cent in 2013-14.

The data, obtained by CBC News through an Access to Information request, shows the effect medical marijuana payments are having on the drug reimbursement budget of Veterans Affairs Canada.

In 2015-16, veterans were reimbursed $91,557,485 for all prescribed drugs. Of that, $20,538,153 went toward medical marijuana.

The dollar value of marijuana payments to veterans have increased more than 50-fold in the past two years.

'The police are enforcing a failed federal law. That law needs to change,' says Joe Cressy

A Toronto city councillor is calling on the Trudeau government to introduce a new federal regulatory framework that would clarify the rules of recreational pot in Canada because cities are in "legislative limbo" as they try to deal with marijuana dispensaries.

"When it comes to federal law on this issue, the federal government needs to act," Joe Cressy, councillor for Ward 20 and chair of the Toronto Drug Strategy Implementation Panel, told Metro Morning.

"The federal government has let down cities right across this country," he said. "Cities are struggling. You cannot arrest your way to a solution."