Before the twentieth century, cannabis was used as a sort of medicine to treat asthma, coughs, migraines, and insomnia. However, due to the psychoactive effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or the THC-derivative, cannabis became illegal and was removed from the list of registered medicines.

Now, cannabis is rapidly emerging around the globe as countries begin to reverse the laws and legalize its medicinal use again. While most countries are exploring opportunities within the medical cannabis sector, the proliferation of recreational cannabis is rapidly spreading throughout the western hemisphere of the world.

Namaste Technologies Inc. (“Namaste” or the “Company”) (TSXV:N.V) (M5BQ.F) (NXTTF) today announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement (the “Agreement”) to acquire 49% of the issued and outstanding shares of Calgary, AB based Choklat Inc. for $1.5 million in cash consideration. As part of the acquisition, Namaste will be appointing a member to the Board of Choklat.

Choklat is a premium chocolate manufacturer with existing sales through its online eCommerce site and through a network of distributors across Canada. Choklat has recently entered into a supply relationship with Sobeys and already has product in 25 stores in Alberta with a goal to roll out in Western Canada and beyond in the coming months.

Imagine a bike tour that takes you to different craft cannabis growers who show you how they cultivate their plants from seed to buds. Or a two-day mom's marijuana getaway, where you and your girlfriends pay a set fee that includes a hotel room, a massage with cannabis-infused oil, some edibles and a gourmet meal. 

"Canada has a unique opportunity to invite the world to see how cannabis is made."- David Coletto, CEO, Abacus Data

There's a large, untapped cannabis tourism market that could cater to everyone from stressed-out parents to first-time users to seasoned consumers, says a market research analyst.

It’s been nearly half a year since Canada legalized and began regulating sales of recreational cannabis.

During that time, Statistics Canada has monitored spending on the drug, and last Friday (March 1), shared its latest results.

“Household spending on cannabis totalled $5.9 billion (in nominal terms) in the fourth quarter, with illegal cannabis accounting for $4.7 billion and legal cannabis $1.2 billion,” reads a Statistics Canada summary of the data. “Cannabis accounted for 0.5% of total household spending, and non-medical cannabis accounted for 11.2% of spending on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis in the fourth quarter.”

As Canadian provinces begin to see their first private licensed cannabis stores, retail chains and dispensaries in the United States have entered a new phase of maturity. These two trends may be prompting major producers to look into getting into the retail market in order to sell product directly to consumers, which could potentially trigger some fresh deal action this year.

For larger growers, the benefits to this vertical integration are obvious. Besides cost savings and convenience, a producer would be able to exercise more quality control and a better understanding of market conditions. This is not possible in all jurisdictions, of course, as provincial governments in Nova Scotia and Quebec run their own retail stores, making this type of integration impossible.

Pre-October, with the country moving toward cannabis legalization, police and lawyers geared up for what was expected to be a rash of impaired driving offences related to the drug.

Instead — in Regina, at least — crickets.

“I don’t have numbers, but I’ll use the word ‘low,’ ” Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray said recently at a Board of Police Commissioners meeting when questioned by reporters on the issue. “We have not laid a lot of (cannabis-related) impaired driving charges. In fact, I don’t think we’ve laid any impaired driving charges as a result of cannabis.”

City police spokesman Les Parker confirmed it, stating the current numbers for cannabis-related impaired driving are “zero, unless other charges are mislabeled.”

When Erica Gilmour and her husband, Drew, started Hummingbird Chocolate in 2011 they had no idea their multi-award-winning chocolates would become one of Canada’s most anticipated edibles. What began as a hobby in the basement of the couple’s home near Ottawa has turned into a massive partnership that will see their bean-to-bar chocolate turned into high-end edibles for the next stage of Canada’s rollout of legal cannabis.

Cannabis stocks were mixed on Monday as new data emerged about the state of Canada’s legal market and Aurora Cannabis Inc. completed its acquisition of a British Columbia–based medical weed company.

Data from the Canadian government shows that the black market for cannabis remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2018, accounting for C$1.17 billion ($878.7 million) of sales, compared with $307 million in legal sales.

Grace DeNoya is used to getting snickers when people learn she's majoring in marijuana.

"My friends make good-natured jokes about getting a degree in weed," said DeNoya, one of the first students in a new four-year degree program in medicinal plant chemistry at Northern Michigan University. "I say, 'No, it's a serious degree, a chemistry degree first and foremost. It's hard work. Organic chemistry is a bear.'"

As a green gold rush in legal marijuana and its non-drug cousin hemp spreads across North America, a growing number of colleges are adding cannabis to the curriculum to prepare graduates for careers cultivating, researching, analyzing and marketing the herb.

A new cultivation facility in Stellarton has received the green light to begin producing up to 18,500 kilograms of dried cannabis per year.

Vancouver-based company Zenabis Global Inc. received its cultivation licence from the federal government on Friday, and CEO Andrew Grieve said the work had already started on production of the first crop, which will be ready in a few months. Zenabis is the sixth company to be licensed to produce recreational cannabis in Nova Scotia.

Grieve said that the indoor, 255,000-square-foot Stellarton facility is expected to support 200 full-time jobs at full capacity.