Get ready Canada, cannabis 2.0 is coming!

About one year after cannabis dried flower and oils were first legalized in October, a new wave of products will be hitting store shelves in December.

These products include 1) cannabis-infused foods and drinks, called edibles and drinkables, 2) concentrates that can be used with vaporizers, and 3) topicals, such as ones made from cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis.

Expectations for these new products are huge.

The province’s top court has agreed with a judge who tossed out 10 drug charges against a man because the wheels of justice moved too slowly.

Arrested in June 2013, Jeremy Mark Lemioer’s trial was set for June of 2017. But in a decision ahead of that trial date, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Elson determined a four-year delay was unreasonable and directed a stay of proceedings against the then-34-year-old Regina man. The Crown appealed.

But in a recently released decision, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal rejected the Crown’s argument.

The 11 disqualified cannabis store applicants in Ontario who had their case dismissed last Friday are appealing the decision and asking the court to suspend allocating any licences to future pot shops again, a lawyer representing the group said.

Lawrence Gridin, a lawyer from Brauti Thorning LLP who represents the group, confirmed to BNN Bloomberg in a phone interview that the law firm filed documents at Ontario’s Court of Appeal and plans to ask for an interim stay of the court’s ruling from Friday.

He declined to provide further comment on the group’s plans for appeal.

A legal battle launched by a group of 11 disqualified pot shop applicants in Ontario has been dismissed by a panel of judges, according to a court filing obtained by BNN Bloomberg.

Lawyers representing the disqualified applicants argued that their clients didn’t receive fair process when they were notified that they won the lottery.

The three judges overseeing the notice for judicial review – Justice David Corbett, Justice Katherine Swinton and Justice Robbie Gordon – ruled to dismiss the application brought forward by the disqualified applicants.

Ontario is exploring the possibility of no longer running the province’s wholesale cannabis distribution business, according to several people familiar with the matter, a move that could substantially lower prices of legal pot in the province. 

Ontario, which is Canada's biggest market for legal pot, will begin consultations with various industry members to pursue a Saskatchewan-like distribution model where licensed cannabis producers will ship directly to retailers, the sources said. An announcement could come as early as next week, the sources added. 

The advancement of the SAFE Banking Act indicates it won’t be long before U.S. stock exchanges open up to cannabis listings, a potential blow to Canadian bourses that have carved a lucrative niche for pot.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 321-103 last week in favour of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which would allow banks to do business with legal cannabis companies. Currently, the industry is forced to conduct many transactions in cash because of its lack of access to the banking system.

The bill now faces the more difficult hurdle of the Republican-controlled Senate, but most industry analysts believe a version of it will pass by next year.

Federal red tape and foot-dragging on approving makers of edible cannabis will see months-long delays in the products reaching stores, a Calgary chocolatier said Thursday.

A spokeswoman with Alberta’s cannabis regulator also voiced frustrations about the process.

City businessman Brad Churchill said he’s been waiting for a licence allowing him to infuse chocolate with cannabis at his Calgary factory since applying for it in late July.

The owner of Choklat said he received a reply from Health Canada but no licence this week, and fears the time it takes to receive it and approval for such things as packaging will push back the actual sales date for his products to March or April.

A third Canadian cannabis company has had its trading licence suspended following the recent fiasco with Ontario-based producer CannTrust.

Evergreen Medicinal Supply’s licence to grow and sell cannabis has been suspended by Health Canada, following an inspection of the British Columbia firm’s facilities in August, reports BNN Bloomberg.

It reports a Health Canada spokesperson as saying the suspension is a result of non-compliance, and designed to ‘protect public health and safety, including preventing cannabis from being diverted to the illegal market’.