In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.

"While there was product to order we were very comfortably getting a large amount of it," says Burns, the CEO of Alcanna, a company that owns a chain of private liquor stores in Canada and the US and, now, cannabis stores in the province of Alberta.

When Canadian provinces across the country came up against shortages of marijuana in the first month of legalization, it was frustrating. But even more frustrating is that this current lack could last for years.

According to Khurram Malik, CEO of Biome Grow Inc., the shortage is not only due to delays in licensing, but is also partly caused by the strict regulations on the country’s 132 licensed producers and enforced by Health Canada. The time needed by cannabis businesses to come up with a product that’s not only up to par, but is also compliant is standing in the way as well. These are problems projected to persist into the foreseeable future.

Canadian police have not seen a spike in cannabis-impaired driving one month since legalization, but there needs to be more awareness of laws around storing marijuana in vehicles and passengers smoking weed, law enforcement officials say.

The Canadian Press canvassed police forces and provincial and territorial Crowns across the country and while some said it was too early to provide data, others said initial numbers and anecdotal impressions suggest stoned driving isn't on the rise.

"Even before the legislation we were catching a lot of high school kids because marijuana has seemed to be kind of mainstream forever," said Sgt. Joe Cantelo of the Kennebecasis Regional Police Force in New Brunswick.

Almost a month into Canada's waltz with legal weed, a new poll suggests Canadians are divided when it comes to the age to buy and consume marijuana.

The federal government set the minimum age for recreational cannabis at 18, but left it up to the provinces and territories to decide if it should be higher. At the moment, it's 19 in most provinces and territories, while Alberta and Quebec have set it at 18.

A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute, however, found that while 27 per cent of respondents agree that the minimum age should be 18, a similar number of correspondents (26 per cent) want it to be 21. Some want it even higher than that — 13 per cent said the legal age should be older than 25.

The supply shortages that have plagued many provinces in the first month of legal cannabis will likely persist for years, industry insiders say.

Provinces including British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have all reported varying degrees of shortages.

As municipal councils prepare to wrap up sessions with outgoing representatives and welcome newly-elected members, there are few meeting dates left for cities or townships to hold discussions ahead of the deadline set by the province to decide whether there should be a government marijuana store in their community.

The provincial government has set a deadline of Jan. 22, 2019 for municipalities to opt out of having a local cannabis retail store.

Thus far, only Guelph and North Dumfries have set dates for the issue to come before council. North Dumfries council will debate the issue on Dec. 10 while Guelph has it scheduled it for Dec. 17.

The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) is “back on track” according to the province’s finance minister, with legal pot now expected to arrive on doorsteps within one to three business days of the order being placed.

The government-run online retail store has been plagued with problems since its launch on Oct. 17, the day marijuana was legalized in Canada. Some customers experienced long wait times for delivery and others had incorrect orders arrive at the door.

Immediately after the online store opened, it received more than 100,000 orders in 24 hours. Within days, customers were warned that deliveries would be delayed up to five days.

Now that recreational cannabis is legal in Canada, producers are looking forward to what they're calling the "second wave" of legalization — edibles, drinks and vaping products expected to become legal starting next year. 

Bruce Linton, the founder and co-CEO of Canopy Growth, said new products developed by Tweed — the cannabis brand owned by Canopy and based in Smiths Falls — represent the next big opportunity.

"I think if you're not preparing things two years in advance, you're never ready," he said. 

"Right now, none of the chocolate or gummy bears or beverages can be prepared or sold, but we're doing experiments on how to make them."

Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:

Pot earnings

Cannabis producers Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth, Tilray and Chronos will report their final pre-legalization financial results next week. The rollout of legal pot has been uneven across the country, with significant supply and delivery problems reported in Ontario and Quebec.

TransCanada talk

TransCanada Corp. will host its annual investor day in Tuesday. The company said on Friday it remains committed to the Keystone XL crude pipeline project despite a Montana judge’s ruling that it must pass a further environmental review.

By now, we should all know that driving a motor vehicle with cannabis in your body could result in harsh legal penalties. But what about driving with cannabis in your car?

Now that cannabis is legal, adults are able to carry up to 30 grams of cannabis or its equivalent in public places. However, when it comes to your motor vehicle, there are a number of restrictions about how that should be done in order to properly comply with the law.