one of Canada’s leading recreational cannabis retailers, is pleased to announce the launch of its latest retail store in Hamilton, ON (2190 Rymal Road East, Unit E-01, Hamilton, ON, L0R 1P0, Canada).

“Today marks the opening of our 3rd location in Ontario, another milestone for the brand”

Choom continues its national retail store expansion with its latest Ontario store. The brand now has 17 operational retail locations across Alberta, Ontario, and B.C. Today’s announcement follows the August opening of the company’s Flagship location in Toronto’s Liberty Village and has plans to open additional locations in B.C. and Ontario over the next few months.

It should come as no surprise that one of the strongest trends in the health care space is the rising wave of natural wellness and natural alternatives categories. While the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the momentum, the movement had begun well before people around the world were sent home, where self-care and well-being became watch words. A natural extension of this focus on self is cannabis, as growing research seems to support the potential benefits this natural plant may provide. Dubbed cannabis 3.0, the next phase of cannabis market maturation features exciting innovation, high-quality offerings and growing investor interest in a space with seemingly unlimted potential.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ: ACB) (TSX: ACB), the Canadian company defining the future of cannabinoids worldwide, has launched Bidiol, the first medical cannabis oil in Uruguay that is wholly produced domestically. The CBD oil is available in 3% and 10% concentrations and comes in 10mL and 30mL bottles, available in pharmacies across the country.

High Tide Inc. (“High Tide” or the “Company”) (TSXV: HITI) (Nasdaq: HITI) (FSE: 2LYA), a retail-focused cannabis company enhanced by the manufacturing of proprietary and licensed consumption accessories, announced today that its Canna Cabana retail cannabis stores located at 4140 Walker Road in Windsor, Ontario, and 960 Brookdale Avenue in Cornwall, Ontario, have begun selling recreational cannabis products for adult use. These openings bring High Tide’s total number of branded retail locations across Canada to 101, and 30 in Ontario, selling recreational cannabis products and consumption accessories. With the opening of these locations, the Company has launched eight organically-built stores in the month of September alone.

Two Tweed locations in Newfoundland are closing after Cannabis NL — the recreational marijuana regulator of the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation — optioned their expiring licences to competing company Atlantic Cultivation. 

The two affected locations are the shops on Water Street in St. John's and Broadway in Corner Brook. 

The NLC told CBC Radio's On The Go in an emailed statement the licences associated with the Water Street, Kenmount Road, and Corner Brook Tweed locations were part of Canopy Growth's production agreement with the province signed in 2018. Canopy Growth is the parent company of Tweed.

But production never took off.

In October 2018, Canada became the first G20 country to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. Over the past three years, the province of Ontario — to name just one Canadian jurisdiction — has moved away from having a significantly under-serviced retail market to one that is heavily saturated.

The Cannabis Act (Bill C-45) provided the rules and regulations around the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis. However, there are significant differences in each province’s and territory’s retail framework — private, public or hybrid — and the legal age for consumption, purchasing options and personal possession limits.

Three years ago, hemp looked like it was getting set for a rocket ride.

Riding a contact high from the frenzy of attention around cannabis legalization, it looked like new markets ranging from health and wellness nutraceuticals to sustainable building materials were about to take off.

That was good news for a crop that, at least in Manitoba, was at the time being predominantly grown for grain.

It’s been just three short years since cannabis was legalized in Canada, but it’s already clear the nation’s exorbitant taxation on cannabis cultivators is not only unsustainable; it’s killing craft growers that are paying more in tax than they earn in margins. Earlier this month, Tantalus Labs CEO Dan Sutton outlined exactly how problematic Canada’s cannabis excise tax is, with small businesses paying as much as 30 percent of their top line revenues to it, in a Twitter thread. “We are milking a calf to death,” he wrote. The industry emphatically agreed, and since then, the conversation has evolved into a campaign to raise the issue with lawmakers.

Spyder Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: SPDR) (“Spyder” or the “Company”), an established Canadian cannabis and vape retailer, announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Spyder Cannabis Subco Inc. (“Spyder Subco”), has received Retail Store Authorization (“RSA”) from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (“AGCO”) for its proposed cannabis dispensary located at 767 Taunton Road in Oshawa, Ontario.