Statistics Canada is in talks with provincial regulators to obtain up-to-date information from cannabis retailers that would provide highly accurate sales data for the legal marijuana sector.

James Tebrake, assistant chief statistician for economic statistics at Statistics Canada, told BNN Bloomberg on Wednesday that the statistics agency plans to obtain the level of granular data for the cannabis sector that it already receives for some food items when it compiles its monthly inflation figures.

You will soon know whether a pot store is coming to a town near you. 

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli told North Bay's CKAT that the government will be announcing details in the near future on where the next round of cannabis stores will be located.

He says the government took a "measured approach" at first by going online only, but now has 20 stores open.

"We're doing very well. We got our first reports on how they're progressing but the shortage of product is still the largest stumbling block."

He says low supplies of cannabis have been a big concern, and he places some of the blame on Ottawa.

Cannabis stocks were mostly lower Monday, as investors digested the first reports from Friday’s regulatory hearing on cannabis and its ingredients and the news that Illinois is legalizing weed for adult recreational use.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted its first-ever hearing on cannabis and its nonintoxicating ingredient CBD all day Friday with more than 100 speakers offering views, including researchers, health professionals, advocates, manufacturers and opponents.

The Canadian cannabis industry is beginning to solve the supply shortages that have plagued it since legalization came into force, according to an analyst at Bank of Montreal (BMO). Tamy Chen, an equity research analyst for BMO Capital Markets, says the chronic issues are being resolved more quickly than projected. “It appears that the industry supply is improving sooner than we had anticipated,” Chen wrote in a letter to clients on May 30.

When Canada legalized cannabis in October 2018, it ended a ninety-five-year long prohibition.

This has catapulted the government into a new era of cannabis regulation. Federal, provincial, and municipal authorities are all rolling out their own methods of adapting in a post-prohibition environment.

But if history has taught us anything about ending a prohibition, it’s that they don’t go out easily.

Take British Columbia’s liquor laws for example. Many of the inane provincial and municipal laws that we have on the books today were developed as a result of alcohol prohibition and the attitudes that people carried as a result of it.

When Canada’s plans to legalize recreational marijuana sprung into existence, people did not take it seriously, as many citizens thought it was a political scheme to convince voters. It was not until Wednesday, October 17, 2018, that many were convinced as Canada became the second country globally to accept the use of said plant.

As stores make their way, those interested need to bear many things in mind. For instance, what might the cost of purchasing marijuana be from province to province? Other factors worth mentioning here include supply and demand, age requirements, amount allowed in one’s possession, etc.

Earlier this month, TheCannalysts and Grant Thornton brought the WeCann Conference to Edmonton, Alberta. Various speakers and panels were invited to the conference to discuss important topics related to cannabis, from marijuana agriculture up to its retail. The gathering aims to recognize and commemorate the cannabis industry’s development and economic growth throughout the years and to explore more on its many possibilities. 

During the one-day event, there was one topic that got the attention of multiple panels –  the second stage of the implementation and the legalization of cannabis edibles into the market. 

For Downtown Eastside residents, accessing legal marijuana as an alternative for harder drugs is not an easy task.

However a Vancouver city councillor is trying to change that, by ending a three-year-old exclusion zone keeping a potential low-cost, legal opioid alternative out of the area, and creating new "regulatory options and potential pathways" for a community still deep in the grips of the country's opioid crisis.

Coun. Rebecca Bligh tabled the motion titled "Cannabis as an Alternative to Opiates and More Dangerous Drugs on the Downtown Eastside," which will be discussed at the next regular council meeting on May 28.

In the seven months since the Trudeau government legalized recreational marijuana use, licensed producers across the country have been locked in a frenetic race to grow mass quantities of cannabis for the new market. But amid the rush for scale, questions of sustainability have often taken a back seat.

According to EQ Research LLC, a U.S.-based clean-energy consulting firm, cannabis facilities can need up to 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year per square foot. Such input is on par with data centres, which are themselves 50 to 200 times more energy-intensive than a typical office building.

An Ottawa pot shop is being forced to significantly reduce its hours because it's consistently running out of cannabis and says the province won't allow it to increase its order.

The Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store on Bank Street, which was operating seven days a week for 14 hours a day, will now close early on Tuesdays and entirely on Wednesdays.

It will open again on Thursdays at 6 p.m. after its weekly delivery arrives.

"We've been running out of cannabis for a few weeks now," said Harrison Stoker, vice-president of brand and culture for the Donnelly Group, the store's parent company.

We would take twice as much in a heartbeat, absolutely.- Harrison Stoker