Alberta's justice minister says marijuana has not been a "cash cow" for Colorado, but neither has it led to widespread criminal activity.

Kathleen Ganley travelled to Colorado late last week to talk to U.S. officials about how they dealt with the legalization of marijuana in their state.

The priority for the province, Ganley says, is to get a regulatory framework in place to ensure that pot stays out of the hands of children, and that our roadways remain safe from impaired drivers.

The federal Liberals intend to legalize pot in the spring of 2017, and provinces are scrambling to prepare for the change.

Call it a crash course in cannabis — Alberta's Justice Minister and Solicitor General is Colorado-bound to see how the state south of the border has handled legal weed.

Kathleen Ganley flies out Thursday to Denver, where she's slated to meet with the attorney general, municipal government, police and fire services, building and licensing experts, and the environmental health department.

A unique support centre for military veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) opened in south Edmonton Saturday.

Marijuana for Trauma is hoping to help heal emotional wounds suffered by soldiers, paramedics and police officers by helping them access medical-grade cannabis.

“This is special,” Fabian Henry, Marijuana for Trauma CEO and co-founder, said. “We’re bringing in the people who are lost and putting a soul back in their body.”

Henry said his own personal experience with PTSD and struggling to get treatment makes him a firm believer his stores are addressing a need and also why they won’t be charging veterans for product.

Need some medical marijuana? There's an app for that.

An Alberta-based pot producer has launched a mobile app to make it easier for patients with a prescription to purchase federally-regulated medicinal weed.

Cam Battley, of Aurora Cannabis, said the idea was to give customers the same service as giant online retailers such as Amazon.

"As far as we know, it is the first legal app for Android and Apple for federally-approved legal medical cannabis," Battley said.

"The fact is that people live on their phones and tablets. They use them to shop for everything from consumer products and health products to medicine. It is an acknowledgment of the reality of how people operate today."

MMPRsoft tapped to handle sales for Canada's only pharmacist-controlled producer and distributor.

Alberta is gradually becoming a leader in medical cannabis production, thanks in part to some Edmonton software developers.

Edmonton’s MMPRsoft, a web-based cannabis-operations program, recently secured a deal to handle the end-to-end operations of CannTrust Inc. – Canada’s only pharmacist-controlled licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis.

MMPRsoft manages e-commerce and webstore development as well as facility management, which includes equipment inventory, crop management, customer relationships, health clinic partnerships and dealings with the department of Veterans Affairs.

Recipes include cannabis cooking oils, flour and butter.

A group of Calgarians took part in a special cooking class Saturday to learn to cook with marijuana.

First up, Crystal Gooding explained her recipe for CannaCoconut Oil, which is coconut oil infused with marijuana.

"You're going to dump your cannabis in there, your ounce... and you're going to bring it to a good simmer," she told the group of about 15 people who turned up at the 420 Clinic in Inglewood for the cooking class.

Gooding also shared recipes for cannabis olive oil, cannabis flour and cannabis butter.

"My favourite is melting [the cannabis butter] and putting it on popcorn," she said.

Imagine a marijuana grow-op in a greenhouse the size of ten Canadian football fields.

That’s what Vancouver-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. is aiming to build in central Alberta, a 600,000-sq.-ft. facility with the capacity to produce up to an estimated 70,000 kg. of cannabis once it begins production, expected by the summer of 2018.

It could become the country’s largest producer, though Ontario-based Aphria Inc. recently bought a swath of land capable of holding a million sq.-ft. of production space, for $6.5 million.

Aurora, currently Alberta’s only licensed producer of medical marijuana, already operates a sprawling 55,200 sq.-ft. facility in Cremona, northwest of Calgary.

Driving past the gravel driveway that leads to an unremarkable rural bungalow just outside the Village of Cremona, most would never know the property is also home to the fastest growing manufacturer of medical marijuana in Canada.

Just beyond the rustic homestead, encircled by a stout, chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, sits a massive one-storey factory that this year is expected to produce 7,000 kg (about the weight of a full-grown African bull elephant) of cannabis for patients who’ve found relief for a wide range of symptoms thanks to a new frontier of medicine.

The lightweight panels are already being tested in a few high-end cars, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz.

With a little elbow grease and a lot of ingenuity, a new Alberta business is churning out biodegradable auto parts made from wood, hemp and flax.

The BioComposites Group plant, located on Drayton Valley's Bio-Mile, uses a one-of-a-kind manufacturing process to make door panels, kick pads, cup holders and dashboard panels. 

"We take waste wood fibre and waste agricultural fibers, and then needle them together with a process that creates a mat that is used for interior panels," said Dan Madlung, CEO and co-owner of BioComposites Group.

It's a remarkable transformation. Even a shocking one. 

Especially considering the unlikely remedy. 

Six-year-old Tyler used to be tormented by hundreds of painful seizures a day. Which would leave him absolutely exhausted at bedtime. 

Even so, his doting mother would still have to pin him down to his mattress until he fell asleep. Otherwise, his small, frail body would continue to thrash about, robbing him of any rest and respite.

"Now he sleeps through the night, because he's having far fewer seizures," says single mother, Angele Vanier, 32. "It's amazing how much progress he's made over the past several months. He has a new lease on life."