New Brunswick is adding illicit cannabis-related activity to the list of offences that can be reported for investigation, facilitating the narc-ing out of one’s neighbours for residents of the Atlantic province.

British Columbia premier John Horgan is turning the blame outwards for the province’s dismal cannabis sales and low profits.

The province has had a tough time in the legal cannabis game since cannabis was federally legalized in 2018 — selling less licensed product than any province other than Prince Edward Island.

The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) engaged in some serious backpedaling regarding a planned Black Friday promotion after talks with Health Canada.

Last week, in a now-deleted tweet, the OCS bid Ontarians to “shop our collection of 7 grams starting at CA$7.50/g.”

The tweet was soon removed and promptly replaced with an online flyer that simply indicated that Black Friday was set to occur, with no language that could be deemed “promotional” and no details regarding product pricing or special deals in honour of the discount shopping day.

With a slowly increasing number of jurisdictions legalising recreational use of Cannabis, a major concern is the process of granting pardons for Cannabis-related crimes prior to legalisation. Many of these jurisdictions, like Canada, have vowed to permit pardons to some of those individuals. 

Canada’s Liberal government passed the legislation four months ago, in order to grant the expedited pardons. However, the protection does have some limits. Namely, only those with a single charge of simple Cannabis possession are eligible for pardons. Those with multiple charges are disqualified.

It’s going to be a busy season for the RIDE program.

Police in Ontario are ramping up Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere checks as the holiday season approaches and drivers get a little too joyful behind the wheel of their cars. Officers in search of drivers under the influence of alcohol or cannabis said the infractions came fast and furious after they set up near Peterborough on Tuesday.

“Three drivers were charged with having cannabis readily available within 45 minutes of that RIDE check starting,” Const. Joe Ayotte with the Peterborough County OPP, told Global News.

A Sudbury-based cannabis company that announced plans to set up shop in Espanola last summer has hit a funding snag that's delaying the project's development.

Jeff Scharf, president and CEO of GaiaCann Inc., said plans for the construction of a first-phase cannabis cultivation and extraction facility in northeastern Ontario have been deferred.

Locals from the northeastern Ontario paper mill town about 40 minutes west of Sudbury recently took to Facebook to express confusion. 

An Edmonton man is looking to open one of the city’s first craft cannabis growing operations.

Rob Simonowits had a medical marijuana licence prior to the legalization of cannabis and just got word that he is now approved to move forward with his application to grow up to 2,100 square feet of cannabis for the legal recreational market. That is roughly the maximum growth allowed for a “micro” operation.

“I am destined to be a craft cannabis grower and you know what, I’m doing it,” said Simonowits.

Health Canada has given him the green light to proceed with construction and he is now in the process of getting his development permit from the City of Edmonton, which he currently has conditional approval.

Four months after the Liberal government passed legislation to provide free, fast pot pardons, just 118 people have had their records cleared — a figure one observer calls "incredibly low."

Statistics provided by Public Safety Canada show there have been 234 applications for record suspensions to date.

The government has estimated that about 10,000 people are eligible for the expedited pardons.

Sen. Kim Pate, a longtime advocate for prisoners and criminal justice, said the small numbers issued to date show that significant barriers persist.

"I think they're incredibly low, given what we understand is probably tens of thousands and probably many more convictions for simple possession," she said.

Playing the role of sativa Santa this year would have been a merry prospect, said Calgary candy-maker Brad Churchill.

But federal regulator Health Canada’s meticulously measured approach in approving production of licensed cannabis snacks and other derivatives has put those edible elves on hold.

“It’s disappointing in the standpoint of not having it in the stores for the holiday season,” said Churchill, owner of Choklat.

“(Federal approvals are) taking longer than it really should but, at the end of the day, the wheels of progress are grinding.”

In one way, the gradual rollout of the next generating of legal cannabis products — which were officially legalized Oct. 17 — comes as a relief, said Churchill.