Tag: Canada


Cannabis Growing Operation First to Unionize in Canada with UFCW 1518


UFCW 1518 crossed a new milestone today as workers at Potanicals Green Growers joined the union and ratified their first collective agreement. Following a unanimous vote to ratify the new contract, Potanicals has become the first cannabis growing operation and extraction facility to unionize in Canada. Workers at the medical cannabis growing and processing facility reached out to the union last year to learn more about becoming part of the BC BUD division of UFCW…


Medical Cannabis Use Rising Among Seniors: Study


While cannabis use has been on the rise following the legalization of marijuana in Canada, a new study has found the increase in cannabis use is more pronounced among Canadian seniors. The study examined surveys conducted by a a commercial medical cannabis provider from 2014 to 2020, and found a gradual increase in the proportion of older medical cannabis users among those surveyed, growing from 17.6% in 2017 to 31.2% in 2019. Researchers noted that…


Travellers Who Don’t Declare Cannabis At The Border Will Soon Face Fines


Scofflaws could be hit with penalties ranging from $200 to $2,000. Starting Monday, travellers who lie about carrying marijuana over the Canadian border could face fines. Recreational cannabis has been legal in Canada since the fall of 2018, but it’s illegal to bring it across the border without a permit or exemption. – Read the entire article at CBC News.


The First Black-Owned Multinational Cannabis Brand: Al Harrington’s Viola To Launch In Canada


Al Harrington’s cannabis products are finally reaching Canada. According to information procured exclusively ahead of an official announcement, cannabinoid-focused biopharmaceutical company Avicanna (also featured in this Forbes article) will be licensing the brand of the NBA star, Viola, and using it to create specific formulations for sale across medical and consumer retail channels in Canada. Viola will receive a royalty fee for the use of its name, but Avicanna will ultimately develop the products being…


Opioid Overdose Deaths Occur Less Often In Areas With More Cannabis Retail Storefronts, Study Shows


This follows a Canadian study that found legalizing cannabis led to a ‘marked decline’ in the volume of opioids prescribed across Canada. The more legal cannabis dispensaries a region has the fewer opioid deaths they suffered, according to a detailed new study published in a top-tier medical journal. Most sharply reduced were deaths from fentanyl overdoses. In areas with one legal storefront cannabis dispensary, opioid death rates were an estimated 17 per cent lower than…


New Study Shows Cannabis Reduces Inflammatory ‘Storms’ Caused By COVID-19


A promising new study out of Canada offers data that some cannabis strains help reduce a specific type of inflammatory distress—called a “cytokine storm”—that proceeds severe cases of acute respiratory distress due to COVID-19. In a study conducted by researchers at Pathway Research Inc., the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge, scientists used artificial human skin, technically a “well-established full-thickness human 3D skin artificial EpiDermFTTM tissue model.” The skin tissue model was exposed…


Aurora Cannabis Lays Off Workers After Signing New Sales Broker Deal


Aurora Cannabis Inc. says it has laid off some workers after signing an agreement with an external sales broker. The Edmonton-based cannabis company’s spokeswoman Michelle Lefler confirmed the cuts but wouldn’t disclose the number of staff impacted or what cities they were located in. Lefler says the move was prompted by Aurora’s recent decision to hire Great North Distributors Inc. to represent the pot company in sales activities across Canada. – Read the entire article…


One In Seven Canadian Cannabis Users Grow Their Own Pot


Department of Health research has found 15% of Canadian marijuana users grow pot plants at home. A 2018 bill that permits the growing of cannabis in homes may cause nothing but problems with landlords and condo boards, critics of the legalization say. “Use of cannabis is common in Canada,” the Canadian Cannabis Survey 2020 states. A Blacklock’s report on the story says the research found one in seven users grow at home. – Read the…


Cannabis Customers Have Been Complaining Ontario’s Pot Is ‘Too Dry’


More than two years after the legalization of cannabis in Canada, the majority of Ontarians consuming pot still buy it from the illegal market because they find it offers better quality, according to Ontario’s auditor general. Bonnie Lysyk’s annual report found that the underground market represent about 80 per cent of cannabis sales in Ontario during 2019 and 2020. Investigators for the auditor discovered that quality, not price, was the primary reason why cannabis consumers…


Irish Woman Tells Joe Duffy She Was Forced To Move To Canada To Access Medicinal Cannabis For Devastating Illness


“I said life is too precious, life is too short and I made the move on my own, no contacts no nothing, just wanting to feel well”. Liveline listeners were stunned as an Irish woman revealed she was forced to move to Canada so she could take medicinal cannabis without getting arrested. Speaking to Joe Duffy on his RTE Radio One show, the caller named Miriam explained how the treatment cured her devastating migraines after…


Mexico Will Legalize The World’s Largest Legal Cannabis Market


The United States will soon be sandwiched between two nations with federally legalized marijuana. Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, Mexico moved forward with legislation legalizing the cannabis plant for a variety of uses. This comes on the heels of Canada’s historic legalization several years ago, which has created a viable international marketplace, channeling funds through the Canadian markets and effectively mobilizing the global cannabis industry. When Canada legalized, the U.S. missed an opportunity to…


Brock Receives Almost $1M In Funding For Cannabis-Related Research


Funding will help researchers examine the increase in substance use-related hospitalizations since recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada. The federal government’s Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has awarded nearly $1 million in funding to two Brock University researchers. Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Antony Chum and his team are investigating key impacts of cannabis policy, two years after the Canadian government legalized the drug. – Read the entire article at Thorold News.


Cooking with Cannabis in Downtown Windsor


The legalization of marijuana in Canada has inspired some to take their kush to the kitchen. “We never knew how interested people were about cooking with cannabis until we started seeing the cookbooks flying off the shelves,” says Sam Katzman, owner of Greentown Cannabis. The growing popularity has prompted Greentown Cannabis to host a second live cannabis cooking demonstration. – Read the entire article at CTV News.


Vancouver Projects Give Weed to Curb Overdoses. Police Just Raided One


A council motion has supported ‘low barrier’ cannabis as an alternative to opioids. Neil Magnuson says he provides more than 200 people free high-potency cannabis edibles as an alternative to them using opioids. On Saturday, he says, Vancouver police raided his supply on wheels. Magnuson, founder of the unlicensed Cannabis Substitution Project, started the project out of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users office more than three years ago. Two years into Canada’s legal…


COVID-19 Pandemic a ‘Boon’ for Legal Cannabis in Canada as Marijuana Industry Turns Two


Canada’s legal marijuana industry is celebrating a jump in sales, more brick-and-mortar stores and competitive pricing as it celebrates two years in business. Since Canada legalized recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, 2018, legal sellers and producers have struggled to compete with the black market, but there have been recent gains in the licensed industry. The change? The coronavirus pandemic, says retail marketing expert David Soberman. – Read the entire article at Global News.


How One Man’s Psychedelic Journey May Change the Face of Schizophrenia Treatment


CANNABIS CULTURE – “It is well understood that people with schizophrenia should not take large dosages of psychedelics because it is destabilizing,” says Mark Haden, Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in Canada.  “But we don’t know the effect of small dosages and how that can impact them.” The future of psychosis treatment took a new turn when Haden met a young man named “John Doe,” who had experience in microdosing…


Job Opportunities In The Canadian Cannabis Industry On Freeze, Except In This Sector


Data by Indeed Canada looks at the current hiring trends. Although employment in cannabis manufacturing started to slide in March and continued shrinking through June as some of Canada’s largest producers announced layoffs, not all the official data is downbeat. Indeed Canada tracked cannabis-related job postings by tallying those mentioning terms like “cannabis” and “budtender” in their job descriptions, excluding those that also feature phrases like “drug test.” Among the most common jobs are retail-related…


From Cherries To Weed: Canadian Farming Family Harvests 60 Acres Of Cannabis


It’s October, which means for outdoor cannabis cultivators in Canada, it’s also harvest season. Nearly 50 firms across the country are licensed to grow outdoors, but just one can say its first harvest has been in the works for nearly seven years. Despite the perception of Canada as a cold and snowy landscape, cannabis has been grown outdoors here for generations, long before prohibition was lifted in 2018. In Rock Creek, a small town in…


Meet The Canadian Jeweler Making Luxury Cannabis Accessories Out Of Gold, Silver And Precious Stones


What do electronic music, precious metals and cannabis have in common? All three are passions of Toronto-based goldsmith Alex Dordevic, the CEO of Tribe and a man who wants to change the meaning of the word ‘luxury’ in the cannabis accessories space. Established in 1993, Tribe began as a magazine documenting Toronto’s budding underground electronic music scene. It was the first in Canada to possess an online parallel, with a community now “four and a…


Aurora’s Disastrous Quarter


Most marijuana enthusiasts prefer plain old weed, and it’s pushing cannabis companies to focus on cheap flower over vapes or edibles. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Cannabis consumers in US states where the drug is legal and in Canada still vastly prefer regular old marijuana over fancy new products like edibles, vaporizers, and concentrates, according to new data from cannabis analytics startup Headset exclusively shared with Business Insider. Aurora just had one of…


Manitoba Man Taking Province to Court Over Ban on Growing Pot at Home


A Manitoba man has filed a constitutional challenge over the province’s rules about growing pot at home. Jesse Lavoie filed the notice of application on Wednesday, naming the government of Manitoba, the attorney general of Manitoba and the attorney general of Canada in his challenge. In the notice, Lavoie claims the province had no right to ban the federal government’s rule that allows four cannabis plants to be grown at home. – Read the entire…


Saugeen Pot Shops Springing Up to Meet Marijuana Demand


Justin Ritchie quit commercial fishing last year and now is in the pot shop business at Saugeen First Nation. When the whitefish grew scarce, due largely he said to clearer and thus warmer water closer to shore caused by zebra mussels, he moved to fishing perch. When someone stole the motor on his small fishing boat, he stopped fishing. He said the legalization of cannabis in Canada nearly two years ago left a “grey” area…


C-K’s First Legal Cannabis Dispensary Opens Saturday


Chatham-Kent cannabis users soon won’t have to travel to Windsor or London, or use the province’s online store, after the first legal dispensary in the municipality opens Saturday. The We Store at 427 St. Clair St., Unit 5A, is set to become Chatham’s first cannabis retail outlet about 22 months after the drug was legalized in Canada. The store is being run by Windsor businessman Rob Katzman. He said both he and general manager Moe…


Second Cannabis Store Opens Doors in Brampton, With More Coming


The number of legal retail cannabis stores in Brampton has doubled – to two. Hobo Cannabis opened its doors on Thursday (July 23) at its new Brampton location on 14 Lisa St., making it only the second retail cannabis store to open up shop in Canada’s ninth-largest city since April 2019. “Hobo Cannabis Company is the city’s second cannabis retailer and marks an important shift, as residents gain access to an additional, and much-needed, legal…


The Tourist’s Guide To Canada’s Cannabis Culture


This article was originally published on Goldleaf, and appears here with permission. The closing months of 2018 saw Canada legalize the recreational use of cannabis for its citizens. Tourists can also partake in the Great White North’s newly established legal cannabis culture. Before you go out and buy your plane ticket, it’s a good idea to brush up on the specifics of how legalization in Canada works. Canada’s Recreational Market Although cannabis is legal in…


Cannabis Canada: More Than 1,000 Legal Pot Shops Open in Canada Right Now


There are now over 1,000 licensed cannabis stores in Canada, as new stores in B.C. and Ontario push the store count into quadruple digits. Alberta continues to lead the country with nearly 500 cannabis stores in the province, although several analysts have said the market is saturated and that some stores recently had to close due to challenging conditions. There are also nearly 500 cannabis stores in Ontario waiting to be fully licensed by provincial…


Aurora Cannabis Co-Founder Retires From Board of Directors


Aurora Cannabis Inc. says co-founder Terry Booth has retired from the company’s board of directors. Booth stepped down as chief executive in February, but had remained a member of the board of the cannabis company. Michael Singer, Aurora’s executive chairman and interim CEO, says Booth helped set the table for the company to lead in Canada and around the world. – Read the entire article at Global News.


Aurora Cannabis is Laying Off Huge Swath of Workforce and Shutting Five Facilities


25% of administrative, sales and 30% of its production staff going. Aurora Cannabis on Tuesday announced a new round of staff reductions and plans to shut five facilities over the next two quarters, as the COVID-19 pandemic pummels the cash-crunched cannabis industry. For most marijuana companies in Canada, which legalized recreational cannabis in October 2018, profits have proven elusive due to fewer-than-expected retail stores, cheaper rates on the black market and slow overseas growth. -…


Cannabis Companies Facing Proposed Class-Action Lawsuit Over Alleged Mislabelling


Some major cannabis companies in Canada are facing a multi-million dollar proposed class-action lawsuit over allegations the potency of their products is “drastically different” than advertised. The statement of claim filed in Calgary on Tuesday accuses the companies of failing to properly label their products and alleges negligence on their part. The plaintiffs are seeking a $500-million judgment — “or such other amount as may be proven at trial” — along with punitive damages of…


Leamington Loses 120 Jobs as Tilray Kills Cannabis Facility


After just a year of growing pot in Leamington, Tilray Inc., one of Canada’s biggest cannabis companies, is pulling up its local stakes and shutting down a greenhouse operation that employed about 120 workers. “I’m very disappointed — this is a blow to our municipality and very concerning,” said Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, who heard the news second-hand on Wednesday. “Right now, we already have people not working because of COVID,” she said. “The decision…