Tucked in amongst the swanky shops on South Granville, a new kid on the block hopes to bring new meaning to the term high-end retail.

"Being in the neighbourhood, the community has been super welcoming,” said Muse Canada president Geoff Dear as he stood in the middle of his company’s first recreational cannabis store.

Dear said the company had to clear a lot of red tape to get to this point and he’s happy to be finally serving customers.

Still, he said now that the store is open, some of the rules around recreational pot sales make it difficult to draw people in to the business.

The 2019 World Drug Report recently-released by the United Nations Office On Drug and Crime reaches a conclusion that may or may not come as a surprise to residents of British Columbia.

The study found that between 2013 and 2017, 23% of B.C. residents used cannabis, a percentage that surpasses the national average of 15% and is the highest in Canada.

Cannabis was legalized on October 17th, 2018 as part of the federal Cannabis Act.

Other trends identified in the report included a 40% increase in use across Canada since 2013, and a 62% increase since 2011. A significant factor in that spike is an increase in use among young adults around and below the age of 19.

The people behind a new Victoria restaurant hope to eventually serve food and drink containing cannabis. 

Trees: Island Grown is a new downtown eatery opened by Trees Cannabis Company, one of several dispensaries in Victoria that continues to operate while it waits for official licensing from the province. 

Alex Robb, CEO of Trees, says the restaurant does not serve anything containing cannabis extracts right now, but eventually it would like to include those options on the menu. 

"We don't want to push the bounds on this one," Robb said. "We've come a long way since 2015, prior to cannabis being legalized, when we were activists that were making sure that people had access to cannabis for medical purposes.

"Now the world is moving in this direction." 

Despite its apparent reputation, Vancouver Island remains behind other regions of the province when it comes to issuing marijuana retail licenses.

According to the latest available statistics from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB), the region of Vancouver Island, Powell River and Gulf Islands is home to six licensed non-medicinal private retail stores. That is three less than the Greater Vancouver and Sunshine Coast region, and 12 less than the Interior and North. That region also leads all regions with paid, complete applications (221), paid but incomplete applications (23) and applications referred to local government or Indigenous Nations (169).

University of B.C. researchers say Canada’s impaired driving laws may be too strict when it comes to low levels of THC.

The UBC study, published in the journal Addiction, found that THC levels less than five nanograms/ml of blood do not lead to an increased risk of causing car crashes in most drivers.

Canadian drug-impaired driving laws penalize drivers found to have blood THC levels of between two to five nanograms/ml with fines.

Dr. Jeffrey Brubacher, associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at UBC and lead researcher on the five-year study said in an interview Thursday that he would recommend Canada’s laws be changed to not penalize someone with under five nanograms/ml in their blood.

The debate on a motion proposing easier access for opioid alternatives in the city’s Downtown Eastside is expected to begin again Wednesday, when Vancouver city council meets to discuss policy and strategic priorities.

Submitted by Coun. Rebecca Bligh in late May, the motion titled “Cannabis as an Alternative to Opiates and More Dangerous Drugs on the Downtown Eastside” proposes amending an almost four-year-old exclusion zone keeping medical marijuana from being sold in one of the city’s most vulnerable communities.

“What I’m asking is well-considered exceptions to that rule, and that city staff come back and make recommendations to council,” Bligh told CTV News Vancouver in an interview Tuesday.

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.

Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. (“Emerald”) (TSXV: EMH; OTCQX: EMHTF) has been authorized by PEI Cannabis and Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corporation to supply Emerald-branded cannabis products into those provinces.

Emerald has also fulfilled its first shipments of premium cannabis products to PEI Cannabis and to licensed private retailers in Saskatchewan. 

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to serve additional provinces,” said Dr. Avtar Dhillon, President and Executive Chairman of Emerald. “We believe that our growing nationwide presence reflects the recognition of Emerald as a reliable and consistent cannabis supplier. We look forward to continuing to expand our supply of quality Emerald cannabis products to the Canadian adult-use market.”

 The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (the “Company” or “TGOD”) (TSX:TGOD) (US:TGODF) is pleased to announce that it has secured a cannabis supply agreement with the BC Liquor Distribution Branch (“BCLDB”).

The BCLDB, under the brand BC Cannabis Stores, is British Columbia’s public retailer of non-medical cannabis.