The Canadian government plans to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the next few months and that will mean changes for police forces across the country.

Currently, police are not very much interested in arresting people for possession of small quantities of cannabis, says Michael Kempa, director of criminology at the University of Ottawa. However, he says officers do use suspected possession to obtain search warrants when they want to investigate more serious crimes, and they will soon not be able to do that.

First Nations say their governments will face new social challenges from legal cannabis.

Members of the Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee are recommending the Liberal government hold back on legalizing cannabis for up to a year in order to address its potential for harmful effects in Indigenous communities.

The committee, chaired by Liberal Saskatchewan Sen. Lillian Dyck, said in its report on Bill C-45 that the government simply did not consult enough with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities before pushing ahead with its plan to legalize the drug.

When the University of Ottawa announced that it would be offering a two-week intensive course in cannabis law, co-teacher Megan D. Wallace didn’t expect it would be a newsworthy event.

“I didn’t think anyone would care,” says Wallace, who’s head of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall’s Not-for-Profit and Charity Law Group. “But we’ve had 20 or 30 media inquiries, which I was really surprised by because it’s a class at a law school. I think this is just so new that people are intrigued by it.”

Those counting on help from cannabis sales to balance the provincial budget are in for a disappointment.

As far as Statistics Canada can tell, cannabis prices in this country have been dropping for the past three years, perhaps the past dozen years. Since weed-market watchers in the United States have found roughly the same thing, it’s probably true.

Memorial hosts conference focused on emerging industry.

Planned grow-ops. Medical uses of cannabis. Bill-C45 and the regulatory rollout of legal marijuana in Newfoundland and Labrador.

These and other topics were explored by guest speakers at The Year of Legalization: Challenges and Opportunities in the Cannabis Industry, Memorial University’s first forum on the emerging industry on April 24.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) announced Monday that it is proposing an amendment to Bill C-45 that would result in a moratorium on home cultivation of cannabis until the government can enact rules and regulations for the entire country.

The proposed moratorium would stop at-home cultivation until individual provinces can enact their own regulations and that Ottawa should provide the provinces with guidance on how to cultivate marijuana at home safely.

Liquor stores will be the ones to sell cannabis, N.W.T. government proposal says.

Some Sahtu chiefs in the Northwest Territories are disappointed the territorial government won't let their First Nations sell cannabis when it becomes legalized.

Colville Lake Chief Wilbert Kochon said he and other leaders in the region had a property in Norman Wells lined up last year from which they could sell pot once it became legal. They wanted to sell cannabis and "have a little control over what's going to be coming into our communities," Kochon said to CBC.

But it doesn't look like that plan will become a reality.

"We were shot down right away," said Wilfred McNeely Jr., chief of the K'asho Got'ine Community Council.

'We’re OK with that because we want to commit to this exciting opportunity,' Fire & Flower says.

A budding cannabis retailer isn't swayed from setting up shops in Edmonton, even if they have to pay 10 times more for a business licence than a liquor store.

Fire & Flower moved its headquarters from Toronto to Edmonton this year and has applied for business licences to open 16 stores in the capital city.

Nathan Mison, vice-president of government and stakeholder relations for Fire & Flower, said the company is OK with potentially paying the $2,500 a year for a licence compared to $235 for liquor stores. 

City eyes one-block gap between cannabis dispensaries and schools — except downtown.

A Regina city councillor says it's a "mistake" to exclude the downtown core from proposed rules on buffer zones for cannabis dispensaries.  

"We have as much a need to protect children in the downtown area as we do in any other area of the city," Ward 2 Coun. Bob Hawkins said.

A new report headed to this week's planning commission meeting proposes that pot shops not be allowed to operate in Regina within a block of schools, day cares and parks — unless those places are located downtown.

The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority has allotted six permits for retail cannabis permits to open up in the city. 

Legalized recreational marijuana might be on the ballot in Michigan this fall.

Ontario's premier said the province is working on an 'educational process' for border cities as the federal government is expected to legalize recreational marijuana this year. 

Premier Kathleen Wynne met with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder last week to sign a memorandum of understanding related to jobs, tourism and shared resources. 

One of the items that came up — but was not part of the document — was how the two governments are handling potential problems surrounding legal marijuana. 

"Our officials are working together with border states to make sure that the rules are clear," said Wynne, after signing the memorandum in Detroit.