Tilray, a Canadian-based company, became the first marijuana producer on Thursday to conduct an initial public offering in the US.

The British Columbia-based cultivator's stock soared in a sign of the increasing momentum behind the legal marijuana industry. In its first day of trading on the Nasdaq, the company's stock surged 32%, closing at $22.39, up over $5 from its IPO price of $17.

"We truly believe we're in the midst of a global paradigm shift," Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy told Business Insider in an interview. Kennedy said listing on the Nasdaq — as a company that touches the plant directly — is a "huge milestone" for the mainstreaming of the marijuana industry in the US.

More than 30,000 people cross the U.S.-Canadian border in Blaine, Washington, every day. For most, it's a trouble-free experience but for some Canadian business people, that seems to be changing. 

Sam Znaimer is a Vancouver, Canada-based venture capitalist who has been investing in everything from tech to telecommunications for more than 30 years. Recently, he put more than $100,000 into legal American cannabis companies. In May, when he attempted to drive across the border, he was flagged for a secondary inspection and questioned for four hours.

Nicholas Reichenbach, CEO and founder of Flow Water Inc., has run into some difficulties while trying to boost the number of staff at his three-year-old spring water company. The Toronto-based company has doubled its work force to 50 in the past year, but as with many companies in the food and beverage industry, he’s found himself in a fierce battle for talent with the nascent legal cannabis sector.

“One of our largest challenges is talent acquisition,” he said. “There have been numerous occasions where, specifically in marketing and sales, we have lost candidates to marijuana companies.”

The B.C. government has announced plans to protect farmland from being alienated by concrete-floored “industrial bunkers” built to grow recreational marijuana.

New marijuana structure projects had to have been under construction, with permits, by today (July 13, 2018) to be immune from a new regulation allowing local governments to prohibit them in the Agriculture Land Reserve, the B.C. agriculture ministry says.

The federal government has allowed non-medical marijuana in “bunkers,” some of which were built as secure locations for growing licensed medical marijuana. Recreational marijuana growing, possession and use become legal Oct. 17 across Canada, due to federal law passed this spring.

KAMLOOPS (NEWS 1130) – B.C.’s first government-licensed pot store will be in Kamloops and it’s expected to employ at least 20 people.

Viviana Zanocco with the Liquor Distribution Branch says the shop at the Columbia Place Shopping Centre is slated to open in October when the federal legalization of recreational marijuana takes effect.

“Kamloops City Council has been very proactive in terms of setting out areas where they would like to see cannabis retail and so that’s a huge advantage for us,” she says, hinting that Burnaby might be using a similar tactic and could be have the first Lower Mainland store.

VANCOUVER, July 11, 2018 /CNW/ - THC BioMed Intl Ltd. ("THC" or the "Company") (CSE:THC) announces that it has been selected by the province to supply British Columbians with adult-use cannabis. THC has entered into an agreement through its wholly-owned subsidiary, THC BioMed Ltd. to supply non-medical cannabis to the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch following legalization.   

THC is very proud to be given this opportunity to have its products available for sale in British Columbia, beginning October 17, 2018.

Cannabis legalization may be just three months away in Canada but First Nations in Chilliwack aren’t waiting.

A second marijuana dispensary on a local reserve opened its doors this week with a grand opening set for July 11, with a third storefront on the way.

Indigenous Bloom opened its doors to customers on the Kwaw-Kwaw-Apilt reserve on Ashwell Road on July 5 while workers were still on site putting the finishing touches on the medical marijuana dispensary.

And Indigenous Bloom Corp, which is based in Kelowna, is just getting started with some big corporate experience and First Nations leadership on its board.

A limit on pot shops in Jasper?

Put it in the air.

A working group of mostly law enforcement officials and Parks Canada managers has recommended allowing the market to decide how many marijuana dispensaries can open in October.

The Cannabis Working Group’s final report to Jasper town council is included with the July 10 council agenda and is available on the town’s website.

Their recommendations appear to follow closely with the responses of a survey that attracted the most responses of any such exercise by the town.

That includes what floors they should be allowed on. Residents said top, street level and basement, and that’s what the group says council should get behind. Parks Canada has the final word.

A proliferation of pot store owners are getting ready for legalization in B.C., but they will have to wait a while to see if they can get a provincial licence.

The attorney general’s ministry posted details Thursday of its requirements for cannabis retail licences, to be issued to qualifying stores in preparation for the federal legalization of recreational marijuana sales in October.

B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch has been renamed the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch in preparation for the new era, where Canada becomes the first industrialized country to make the product legal for adult use.

Former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh is urging voters to say No to a referendum on proportional representation because he believes it will usher in extremist parties like those in some European countries.

Dosanjh says Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary require very low percentages of people to vote in candidates with racist views, and that has changed their political landscape in a negative way.

The former New Democrat premier says the party he once led is proposing a proportional representation system that would allow five per cent of voters to elect extremist members of the legislature.