After months of renovations, paperwork, and multiple interviews with police detectives, Ashley Vander Velden and Bill George, owners of Naturally Bongins in Wingham, can legally sell marijuana to people over the age of 19.

Vander Velden said, “We are very excited to become Wingham’s first local cannabis experts,” during a recent interview with Wingham Advance Times.

The police department “analyzed the substance use policy and transitioned to fitness for work policy instead of zero-tolerance.”

The Calgary Police Department in Alberta, Canada, lifted the ban on cannabis use for its officers.

According to Industria 420, the consumption of psychoactive cannabis will only be allowed during free time as long as it does not interfere with the duties of police personnel.

Speaking to the Calgary Herald, Andrea Urquhat, Director of Human Resources, explained, “We analyzed the substance use policy and transitioned to fitness for work policy instead of zero-tolerance. There is no evidence that this particular change is detrimental to our fundamental goal of serving and protecting.”

Province's fine follows an inspection in May 2019 and two raids, in November 2019 and July 2020

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club Society and its founder Ted Smith have been fined a total of $6.5 million for selling marijuana illegally at the club’s Johnson Street location.

The fine follows an inspection in May 2019 and two raids at the unlicensed, non-profit dispensary in November 2019 and July 2020.

Cannabis use in Athens is among the highest in Europe, according to a Greek professor who spoke to broadcaster ERT on Tuesday.

Nikos Thomaidis, professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Athens said that Athens is ranking fifth or sixth in Europe, according to wastewater analysis data provided by Greek authorities to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs.

Thomaidis said cannabis use dropped in the first phase of the lockdown from March 2020 to September 2020, as in other European cities, attributed to the absence of trafficking.

Man found with cannabis now faces charges for possessing drugs and stolen property.

It didn’t take long for officers with the Brockville Police Service (BPS) to track down a suspect who had earlier fled an attempted traffic stop and was later found with stolen goods and drugs, including cannabis.

Officers had no problem safely following the fresh tire tracks to the vehicle, which they discovered had slipped off the road into a ditch outside of the city, notes an incident report from the BPS.

The Canada Border Services Agency has seen a significant increase in cannabis seizures in recent years, intercepting thousands of kilograms of product attempting to pass through the country's borders and spurred in part by the growing popularity of online purchases.

Data published online by the CBSA shows that seizures have jumped from nearly 500 kilograms in the 2017-18 fiscal year to nearly 11,800 kilograms in 2020-21, a more than 2,200 per cent increase.

Halfway through the 2021-22 fiscal year, Canada's border officials have intercepted more than 10,500 kilograms of cannabis, with the country easily on pace to surpass the previous year's total.

The data is as of Nov. 29, 2021.

Two officers, who had never consumed cannabis, ate an entire bar after stealing three edibles during a 2018 Toronto dispensary raid. After feeling the effects, one of the officers called 911.

What started as a raid on a Toronto cannabis dispensary has led to one officer resigning from the Toronto Police Service and a second admitting to eating cannabis edibles while on duty.

The edible in question was an infused-chocolate bar, one of three that were stolen during a 2018 raid. On Monday, a Toronto police officer pleaded guilty to a charge of discreditable conduct at a police hearing, CBC reports.

'We looked at the substance use policy and have moved to a fit-for-duty policy rather than a zero-tolerance one'

More than three years after recreational cannabis was legalized, a total ban on its use among uniformed Calgary Police Service members has ended.

As of Tuesday, sworn off-duty CPS personnel are allowed to consume the drug as long as it doesn’t interfere with their duties.

A look at the current state of global cannabis reform.

Most of the world has decriminalized cannabis, and many nations have implemented regulated cannabis industries. Medical marijuana is often the precursor to personal-use cannabis legislation because it’s easier for cannabis-wary thinkers to consider weed as medicine than recreation. 

Medical marijuana advocates are primarily responsible for the growing accessibility of cannabis in certain regions in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. However, most Asian countries continue to uphold cannabis prohibition, even for medical use.

Keep reading to discover the legal status of medical marijuana around the world.