Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy, said much of the processing industry has stood on the sidelines waiting to see the federal regulatory framework for edible cannabis, but he expects that companies will soon start looking to see if there is a fit with their products.

“I don’t think people appreciate how complicated things are going to become in 2019 when edibles will become legal,” he said.

The beverage industry, particularly beer, has been the most proactive in exploring this area, he said.

The federal government released proposed guidelines for edible marijuana in late December, setting up a 60-day consultation period, but a key recommendation would prohibit the sale of cannabis-infused booze.

Any local businesses hoping to cash in on the upcoming retail cannabis industry will soon have their chance. 

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario will be opening up an application lottery system at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning. 

The results are expected to be announced by next weekend. 

The AGCO will only be giving out 25 licences in the lottery. The provincial government has said a widespread supply issue is the reason for the small number of available licences. 

Many people's reaction to the news of legal marijuana shops is mixed. Some think it could be good for the community. 

The last year was a 12-month Champagne toast for the legal marijuana industry as the global market exploded and cannabis pushed its way further into the financial and cultural mainstream.

Liberal California became the largest legal U.S. marketplace, conservative Utah and Oklahoma embraced medical marijuana, and the U.S. East Coast got its first commercial pot shops. Canada ushered in broad legalization, and Mexico's Supreme Court set the stage for that country to follow.

U.S. drug regulators approved the first marijuana-based pharmaceutical to treat kids with a form of epilepsy, and billions of investment dollars poured into cannabis companies. Even main street brands like Coca-Cola said they are considering joining the party.

Recreational marijuana legalization in Canada might only be two months old, but that doesn’t mean all insurers in the country are newbies to the cannabis insurance space. For Wynward Insurance Group, the decision to get into the marijuana marketplace came two years ago when the federal government began taking steps towards legalization. 

Marijuana became legal in Canada in October 2018. Like many states in the U.S., government officials are struggling with how to manage, measure and understand both legal and illegal use of cannabis. This is where the study of human excrement comes in.

Sewage in several municipalities will be studied to gain knowledge of cannabis use. The organization coordinating this activity is Statistics Canada.

A businessman from China hopped on a private jet last month, landed in Canada and went hiking on the Cascade Range in BC.

And then he smoked a fat blunt.

This experience cost $12,500. It’s part of a ‘high-hiking’ tour hosted by Butiq Escapes, a luxury weed tourismcompany based out of Victoria, where a hiking guide picks you up from a private airport, smokes with you in the mountains and feeds you (and up to a group of four), lunch and dinner.

The deadline is quickly approaching for landlords who want to restrict cannabis smoking on their properties — by Jan. 15 tenants need to be advised that their lease is changing to include a ban.

Once tenants receive notice of the proposed change to their lease, they have 30 days to contest it to the Régie du logement.

Kevin Lebeau, spokesperson for the Quebec Landlords Association, said there are many reasons a landlord might not want their tenants smoking pot. 

For one, they want to make sure their dwelling isn't seeped in cannabis smoke, he said. 

"Second of all, it can also constitute a nuisance for other tenants," Lebeau said. 

In 2018, pot reached a tipping point. A clear majority of Americans now wants to see the drug made fully legal. California and Canada began selling marijuana to anyone over 21.

Ontario-based startup Eve & Co (TSXV: EVE; OTCQB: EEVVF), a cannabis company specifically marketed towards female consumers, just completed its first ever full shipment of product to the Cannabis NL website.

The company’s gender-focused specialization represents a potentially untapped corner of the market, with studies showing that marijuana usage to combat the effects of morning sickness is increasing among pregnant women.

Eve & Co provides cannabis products through subsidiary Natural MedCo Ltd, which is licensed for fresh and dried flower sales to provincial retailers under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations.

From Taiwanese cheese tea (tea topped with cheesy foam), which is apparently poised to become “the new bubble tea,” to a rise in “peganism” (a paleo/vegan diet mashup), forecasters have already predicted several new trends for 2019. But if there’s one thing Canadians can count on to radically transform food and drink in the new year, it’s the introduction of newly licit edibles.