Quebec’s provincial police took part in a raid covering 15 locations in and around Montreal yesterday to investigate the sale of illicit cannabis online, but came up empty in terms of arrests.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) took to the Greater Montreal Area, with one search taking place off-island on the South Shore, as part of the investigation. Multiple kilograms of illicit cannabis, packaged for retail sale, were seized.

Sarnia police say the small, southern Ontario city has reached a record high for impaired driving rates this year and are pointing to legalized cannabis and incoming edibles products as the problem.

Officers laid 41 impaired driving charges from January 2019 to August 2019 — a 41 percent increase from the same period last year, which saw 28 charges.

“I’m not sure what the cause of it is, but given the time of the rise, I can only assume the legalization of cannabis has something to do with it,” Cst. Shawn Urban told BlackburnNews.com.

“We’ve seen extremely high readings and vehicle accidents … with people impaired by drugs, we see people passed out behind the wheel. It’s very obvious to our officers that there are signs of impairment there,” he said.

Cannabis growers in the B.C. are getting some help to transition out of the black market as part of a newly announced program that could see participants qualify for loans of up to $500,000.

B.C.’s Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction has set aside $675,000 to help an estimated 2,500 small growers join the legal cannabis industry. The money will be disbursed through the Community Futures Central Kootenay, a non-profit organization focused on economic development.

Christmas is coming, but don’t expect any flashy giveaways from your favourite cannabis brand. The laws behind promoting cannabis in Canada are far too Grinch-like for that.

“Much like alcohol, we don’t want to encourage people to buy the product. So, the advertising is supposed to be really neutral,” Daniel Walker, a lawyer with Bobila Walker Law, told The GrowthOp.

An update of the Cannabis Act in October added clarification to the rules around promotional items. But it still can be confusing.

A 30-acre lot in Ridgeway, Ont. is set to become a brand-new cannabis farm, but not if locals can help it.

The property was sold earlier this year for about $600,000 after a few months on the market, with the intention of turning it into a production and cultivation facility for Greenherb Farms.

But as the land is prepared for farming — tall fencing installed and trees and brush cleared — outraged neighbours have formed a group. The group is circulating a petition to prevent the farm from taking root, citing concerns about odour, environmental destruction, traffic and historical value.

A little over a year ago Canada legalized cannabis nationwide. Canada became the first G-7 nation to legalize cannabis for adult-use.

Uruguay is the only country to have legalized cannabis for adult use prior to Canada doing so, however, Uruguay’s model differs from Canada’s model.

Each province in Canada adopted its own regulatory framework in some aspects, with some provinces allowing robust competition between cannabis companies.

New Brunswick took a different approach.

The Monopoly New Brunswick Model

For the past year, a Crown corporation has served as the sole legal cannabis industry entity in New Brunswick.

Insurance is a steep cost for the new retail cannabis industry, says a central Alberta business owner.

Matt Panelli, co-owner of Lacombe’s Merry Guana, said it was difficult to get an insurance quote when he first started his business last fall.

He and his partner were only able to get quotes from two companies.

“The first quote we got was five times the amount a liquor store would pay for similar coverage, and the other one was two-and-a-half times,” said Panelli.

“So we have to pay two-and-a-half times what a liquor store pays, even though all of our product has to be stored in a vault that we had to build – it’s essentially like a bank vault.”

On the tail-end of what turned out to be an extremely risky year for cannabis companies, one must wonder what 2020 has in store for a quasi-legal industry that is contending with a vaping crisis, contentious politics at all levels of government and ongoing financial concerns.

Rocco Petrilli, chief operating officer and board chair of the National Cannabis Risk Management Association, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based nonprofit, says the top risk worries for the group’s 2,000-plus members may not be what you’d expect

Slip-and-falls at a growing number of marijuana dispensaries? Finding affordable product liability insurance? An unusually cold winter ruining crops? Adequate quality control?