As Canada continues its march towards the legalization of recreational cannabis, we should pay much more heed to the unintended consequences.

Last week, the Senate passed Bill C-45 by a vote of 56-30, with one abstention. The Senate sent the bill back to the House of Commons with a boatload of amendments, including restrictions on cannabis promotion, home-grown pot and sharing weed with minors.

It’s just a matter of details now. There is no question the bill will pass, and within a matter of months, weed will be legal in Canada.

Saint John conference hears how companies grapple with raising brand awareness — without breaking the law.

Before New Brunswick's cannabis stores open to the public, marketers are grappling with the challenge of how to tell customers about their brand without breaking the law. 

"We've been given very clear direction," Ray Gracewood, chief commercial officer for New Brunswick-based Organigram, said Tuesday at the World Cannabis Congress in Saint John.

"[For example,] the fact that we are only allowed one colour on the packaging."

Earlier this year, Health Canada introduced strict guidelines around labelling.

Containers must display health warnings, similar to tobacco products, and company logos and lettering have to stay small.

General manager of provincial pot retailer hopes to conquer stereotypes about cannabis users.

It's not everyday that someone can add "general manager of New Brunswick's first cannabis retail chain" to the old resumé.

But Lara Wood can. And with her new position as general manager of Cannabis NB comes a wide array of challenges.

One of the main issues is the promotion of the product itself, a task mostly centred on education and public safety.

"As it becomes legal, the priority has to be helping people understand the product … how it works, the effects," said Wood, who will oversee the retail chain, staff and product.

"People who are existing consumers even have to understand how it works in a legal environment."

Many Canadian workplaces aren’t nearly ready for the fast-approaching legalization of marijuana, a marijuana industry expert told the World Cannabis Congress Monday.

Jason Fleming, vice-president of human resources for Ontario marijuana producer MedReleaf, said there’s still a lack of definitive testing, and many employers have not educated staff on new policies.

“Employers are having to write policies and have to prepare, but in many cases they are still using really outdated, anecdotal information,” he said Monday in Saint John.

International treaties, Health Canada ban on imports restrict supply from abroad.

Licensed cannabis producers are ramping up production to get ready for legalization of marijuana in Canada this year, but are also bracing for demand to far outstrip supply because of restrictions on imports.

Health Canada forbids licensed producers, which will be the only authorized sellers of marijuana to provincial governments, from importing any cannabis for sale, regardless of whether the purchase is for medical or recreational purposes.

The only cannabis imports that the department allows are those classified as genetic material for licensed dealers that conduct research and testing.

Province lays out rules in anticipation of federal legalization.

After months of debate and revisions, Quebec has adopted a law laying out the guidelines for the sale and distribution of cannabis in the province.

Premier Philippe Couillard's Liberals, who hold a majority in the National Assembly, all voted for Bill 157. Québec Solidaire, which holds three seats, also voted in favour.

The opposition Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Québec voted against (more on that later).

Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois says the province will be ready when the federal legislation will be in place later this year. 

But she also took pains to stress the government is not promoting cannabis and the legislation includes plenty of restrictions on its use.

Staff at the Municipality of Highlands East are preparing for changes coming once marijuana is legalized in Canada this summer.

CAO Shannon Hunter told council that a memo had been issued to staff regarding drug use in the workplace. That memo states that despite the changes to legislation, “employees are prohibited from consuming, possessing, selling or transferring cannabis (including any substances containing cannabis) in the workplace, which includes all of the municipality’s properties and vehicles.”

The municipality is also anticipating calls to the bylaw department by property owners about “smell and odour” from neighbours’ properties, or potentially  about people using marijuana in public places.

'To a 5-year-old, smoking is smoking, whether it involves tobacco, cannabis, cigarettes or vaporizing'.

More municipalities around Alberta are crafting bylaws to deal with the issue of smoking and vaping marijuana in public places once recreational cannabis becomes legal later this year.

On Monday, the Town of Banff banned vaping and smoking pot in all public places once cannabis becomes legal, and the City of Lloydminster went one step further, banning the smoking or vaping of all substances in public.

"We applaud the City of Lloydminster for making public health a top priority by banning all forms of smoking and vaping in indoor and outdoor public areas," said Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health.

Edmonton experts divided, but one legal grower says illegal weed is here to stay.

The locations of Edmonton's proposed legal pot shops could make or break the black market for cannabis, a University of Alberta researcher says.

Most of the proposed legal cannabis stores are situated in central parts of the city like downtown and Whyte Avenue. Grad student Thomas Lippiatt says this means cannabis consumers in the suburbs and outskirts of Edmonton might instead rely on the convenience of the black market.

"Accessibility is likely to be a problem with the legal market, which, a reasonable person can assume, will create challenges for its ability to displace that black market," said Lippiatt, who is studying urban planning. 

As Ottawa prepares to take its final steps toward legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the head of a task force that made recommendations to the federal government for the bill issued a warning to industry members not to “play fast and loose” with the new rules.

Speaking to industry members gathered at the first World Cannabis Congress in Saint John, former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan said Canadians are becoming increasingly sensitive about the legalization of cannabis as its advent draws nearer. She urged companies that are licensed to produce cannabis – many of which have bristled at the strict limitations the government is pursuing on branding and packaging their products, for example – to respect legislators’ cautious approach and boundaries.