Pete Patterson loves to see people's reaction when he tells them he makes the machinery used to process marijuana.

Some are shocked and taken aback, after all, cannabis used to be an illegal drug.

Others are impressed and think it's cool Patterson is capitalizing on a thoroughly modern and lucrative business sector.

"When we first started Vitalis Extraction Technology, I used to cover my mouth and say what business I was in quietly," said Patterson, who is the company's co-founder and chief operating officer.

"Now, I'm very open about it. It's not taboo anymore. We don't touch the plant."

Alcohol-use policies will likely apply to marijuana but gauging impairment is tricky.

With recreational marijuana set to be the law of the land in just weeks, employers will have to develop human resource policies that recognize this significant shift, an HR professional says.

"They need to review their HR policies to prepare for this new challenge," Daniel Boucher told The Homestretch on Tuesday.

Boucher is the regulatory affairs and research director at Chartered Professionals in Human Resources of Alberta. He says there are three broad categories that will need to be updated.

"Fitness for duty, impairment and alcohol and drug policies," he said.

A large-scale East Ladner greenhouse sees big money in pot, even if it’s sold lower prices.

Health Canada this year gave the go-ahead for Emerald Health Therapeutics, a B.C.-based licensed producer of medical cannabis, to grow medical marijuana at the Village Farms greenhouse. The joint venture, called Pure Sunfarms, is planning to grow recreational cannabis in advance of its legalization later this year.

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In a news release this week, Village Farms’ CEO Michael DeGiglio calls cannabis production “truly transformational”.

The #FocusedOn campaign encourages youth to make positive and healthy lifestyle choices

The current approach to cannabis does not work. Canada has some of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world, especially among youth and young adults. That's why the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-45, the proposed Cannabis Act, to keep cannabis out of the hands of youth while keeping profits out of the hands of criminals and organized crime. As part of its public health approach to the legalization and strict regulation of cannabis, the Government has launched a robust public education campaign to inform Canadians, especially youth, about the health and safety facts of cannabis use.

From drug pooling to medical marijuana, plan sponsors have a number of issues to keep track of when it comes to their benefits plans. At the Face to Face Drug Plan Management forum in Vancouver this month, a panel of experts tackled some of the hot topics the industry is thinking about.

Pooling

One concern for sponsors and advisors is that pooling charges are increasing at a much faster pace than premiums.

Spots in Olds College cannabis program snapped up in hours, with hundreds of jobs in Alberta beckoning.

Olds College’s new cannabis production program isn’t some half-baked idea — it’s high time.

“We’ve been offering horticulture programming for over 50 years, so it makes sense for this new facet of the horticulture industry to come our way for training,” said Debbie Thompson, the college’s vice-president academic and student experience.

“It’s a new industry that’s expanding, and people see this as an opportunity to get into that field. This is their first step.”

Despite the noise emanating from both the Senate and Jean-Marc Fournier, Quebec’s Minister for Canadian Relations, the current debate over whether federal or provincial law should decide if cannabis can be cultivated at home is misleading. Arguments against home growing for safety reasons are thinly veiled attempts at establishing and maintaining a government monopoly on cannabis sales.

While federal-provincial tussles are quintessentially Canadian, this debate masks the bigger issue: limiting citizens’ rights to grow recreational cannabis at home. This right should be upheld at all costs because it makes sense legally and economically.

As marijuana farmers in Oregon say a flood of supply is killing their businesses less than three years after recreational cannabis was legalized, economists say it's a warning to Canada.

Stephen Easton, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, says large fluctuations in price and supply are bound to happen when you create a legal market where an illegal market already exists.

"There is no reason to think it won't happen here as well. In a broader sense, we are adding legal production to an already robust illegal production," Easton said.

"Consumption may simply not increase in proportion to our ability to grow."

When Canada legalizes marijuana later this summer, the big players say they will be ready to do business — and this week, one of them got much bigger.

Aurora Cannabis announced on Monday that the company will buy medical marijuana firm MedReleaf for $3.2 billion to create an industrial giant with a valuation of about $7 billion.

Facility plans to produce 25 to 30 times more cannabis, create up to 200 jobs.

Canada's Island Garden in Charlottetown is growing its business by more than it originally planned. The P.E.I. marijuana grower is building a new greenhouse and warehouse, at a cost of $35 million.

"It's a very exciting day for me today," said Edwin Jewell, the company's president and CEO.

"I'm very pleased and very proud to think that what started out as an idea just a few years ago has turned into a successful company."

New capital