In a sign of marijuana’s growing normalization in Canada, two major life insurance companies have decided to treat cannabis users as non-smokers, reversing a long-standing policy and offering many of them far cheaper premiums.

Like their competitors, Sun Life and BMO Insurance have for years classified anyone who disclosed using marijuana – either recreationally or for medical purposes – as a smoker, saddling them with charges that could be triple those of non-smokers.

But in memos released over the last week, the companies say the latest research on the drug’s health impacts convinced them to change that approach.

Mitchell Cutler had just finished selling a THC-infused ointment to an arthritic woman — her “medicine” — when Toronto police showed up and charged him with possession for the purposes of trafficking.

“If these charges do stick I guess my future is pretty much over,” said the marijuana dispensary worker, who says he has never before been in trouble with police.

Cutler was at city hall Monday as part of a coalition of pot dispensaries urging the city to drop the charges laid by Toronto police during raids last Thursday.

In honor of World No Tobacco Day, MERRY JANE breaks down the myths.

We inhale weed deeper than cigarettes and hold it in longer, but smoking tobacco can cause cancer while smoking marijuana can help prevent it. How is this possible? 

May 31 is World No Tobacco Day, a global 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco. In honor of this anti-cig celebration we explain how the world's most potent plant stacks up against tobacco. 

Cigarettes Damage the Lungs

The smoke from cigarettes cause damaged cells in your lungs to multiply, this can lead to the development of tumors. The THC and CBD in marijuana has a therapeutic effect.

The legalization of medical cannabis has come with the need to reform and even create many policies and regulations in order to provide a safe framework for its production and consumption. One important issue up for contention is the use of pesticides on cannabis plants.

The word pesticide is inherently scary sounding. The suffix -cide invokes death as in genocide or homicide. However unfortunate this may be, pesticides are an integral part of the agriculture industry. In general, pesticides or pest control products are chemical or biological agents that discourage the presence of fungi or insects and stop them from destroying the plant and spreading disease.

Canada’s medical marijuana fiasco came into sharp relief on Thursday when police in Toronto raided 45 illegal pot dispensaries and seized hundreds of kilograms of cannabis and its related products. Activists were outraged, the police were both apologetic and unapologetic, and, as always, the public was confused.

The situation is a mess. It is now looking as though the Liberal government should have anticipated Canada’s chronic confusion when it announced last month that it would wait an entire year before introducing long-promised legislation to legalize marijuana.

A day after Toronto Police swept through the city’s marijuana retailers, arresting around 90 people and seizing hundreds of kilograms of drugs, Chief Mark Saunders faced pointed questions from a crowd of protesters over the police’s decision to crack down on the trade.

At a tense press conference on Friday, Chief Saunders said the operation, named Project Claudia, was not an attack on the lawful marijuana use, and that it had been prompted by complaints from residents and by police concerns over the health of those who purchase marijuana at dispensaries.

If you have any doubt as to the absolute transformation that has occurred in the Canadian collective attitude toward marijuana, head on down to the Lift Cannabis Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Center this Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29. The event runs over the course of the weekend and culminates with an “afterparty” hosted by Supreme Pharmaceuticals Inc.(CNSX:SA) at Candyland on King Street West in Toronto.

Supreme Pharmaceuticals CEO John Fowler will participate in a panel discussion at noon on Saturday discussing some of the legal issues surrounding the evolution of the MMPR economic in Canada. 

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.

An owner of a medical marijuana dispensary in Toronto says she won’t allow city licensing officials to close down her store because what she’s doing isn’t “criminal.”

Queens of Cannabis co-owner Brandy Zuborg received a warning from the city last week and again on Monday, but told reporters Wednesday that what she’s doing is legal.

Zuborg said her store gives people the ability to become employed as a supplier or dispensary owner. “And there’s nothing criminal about that,” she said.

Ferneyhough called the city "unconstitutional" for "punishing dispensaries for providing sick patients with access to their medicine."