More than 1.5 million British Columbians in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have no local retail access to recreational cannabis more than a year after weed was legalized for sale.

“In B.C., municipalities have been given veto power over the rights that the federal government has given to Canadians, the right to regulated, dignified access to cannabis,” said Jeremy Jacob, president of the Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers.

Municipalities must support any application for a cannabis retail store, before the province will consider granting a licence.

About 174 cannabis retail stores are concentrated on Vancouver Island, the southern Interior and Vancouver.

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is mulling putting disposable cannabis vape pens on the list of drugs and devices that qualify for a reimbursement program.

The department has categorized vaporizers as medical devices for about five years. Veterans, as well as retired RCMP officers, may be reimbursed up to $300 for their purchase of a vape to be used with doctor-prescribed medical cannabis.

A Saskatoon woman who is fighting to have the Government of Saskatchewan subsidize her medicinal cannabis says she hopes to take her battle to the province’s highest court.

Alicia Yashcheshen, who consumes medicinal cannabis to treat her Crohn’s disease and chronic pain, receives social assistance through the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services. In 2018, she applied for special food status coverage to cover her medicinal cannabis. According to court documents, the ministry rejected the application, saying that cannabis is a drug, not a food item.

Some of Canada's biggest cannabis producers are facing proposed class-action lawsuits in the United States after investors were hit with steep financial losses in the stock market.

At least nine U.S. law firms are pursuing cases against Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis and Hexo Corp. in American courts.

Although the allegations vary, each pot producer is accused of misleading investors or failing to disclose certain problems with their businesses. When those problems became publicly known, the lawsuits claim, share prices plunged and investors were stuck with losses.

"[Investors] are mad; they were taken by surprise," said Reed Kathrein, a lawyer at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, which is pursuing claims against all three producers.

There was a time when a pound of “B.C. bud” — high-quality cannabis grown in British Columbia — could go for USD$3000, hustled across the border by backpack-toting smugglers and delivered into the hands of “ganjapreneurs.” To some, these were the good ol’ days — before 9/11 changed border security; before the police caught on, and before legalization and corporate entities got into the game.

Those days are long gone, but the legacy of B.C. bud has endured. So much so that in December, B.C. Premier John Horgan lamented that the culture, created underground, had been negatively impacted by legalization.

Thanks to changes in WADA policies, Olympic athletes can use CBD legally for the first time.

A new champion will be crowned when the 2020 Summer Olympics debut in Tokyo. We’re not talking gold medals or world records, though. Instead, a new presence will be felt for the first time legally at the Olympics—cannabidiol, or CBD.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, an organization that monitors and fights against the use of drugs in the Olympics, announced in 2018 that CBD had been removed from its list of banned substances. Since the organization’s formation in 1999, all cannabinoids like CBD and THC had been banned for all Olympic athletes. The 2020 Olympics represents the first games in which athletes can legally use CBD without fear of consequence.

At 5:30 p.m. on a rainy Tuesday night, The Dispensary — one of Vancouver’s oldest grey market cannabis stores — is doing booming business. Dozens of people stop in to pick up cannabis flower, edibles, and other cannabis products. Not one of their customers seem concerned that the store isn’t licensed by the provincial government.

After a lengthy wait, B.C. now has 134 licensed cannabis providers in operation. But many consumers are choosing to stay with unlicensed suppliers. Although more than 20 per cent of British Columbians have used a cannabis product in the past three months, according to Statistics Canada, sales per capita are the lowest in the country, averaging at just $10.

There’s an old problem for law enforcement when it comes to cannabis, and that is trying to prove impairment definitively. A simple blood or breath test just doesn’t work like it does with alcohol. The problem is now being tackled with very new technology, including one of the most advanced driving simulators in the world — in downtown Toronto.

Tracy Milner is a former occupational therapist and co-founder and CEO of BrainFX, an Ontario-based company. It has developed a proprietary, tablet-based cognitive testing system, often used on patients with neurological problems to assess brain function and aid in rehabilitation. Milner realized the technology’s potential beyond health issues.

The New Brunswick government has received eight responses to a request for proposals for the operation, distribution and sales of recreational cannabis in the province.

The government issued the call for proposals in November, saying that losses incurred by Cannabis NB — the provincial cannabis corporation — persuaded the government it was time to turn to the private sector.

Finance Minister Ernie Steeves says the interest shows entrepreneurs are ready to invest in New Brunswick.

The province received two proposals each from companies or groups in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Alberta and one each from companies in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

The government of Quebec is known for taking a unique approach to law-making, informed by French culture, history, sovereignty and language rights. Those laws can be confusing to outsiders who aren’t familiar with the territory – and cannabis regulation is no exception.

There’s no question that Quebecers love weed, but that appetite doesn’t seem congruent with the province’s legislation surrounding the drug. Just recently, legislators bumped the minimum age to buy cannabis from 18 to to 21 – the highest in the country.