Under a clouded sky that threatens rain, cyclists, moms pushing strollers and riders on horseback traverse the gravel path that meets the end of Lochside Drive in Central Saanich.

The path looks onto a green pastoral land that rolls out like a carpet, a blank canvas of protected agricultural land.

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Developer turned potpreneur Shawn Galbraith looks at the 36-acre parcel and sees unlimited potential for growing Canada’s next cash crop: cannabis.

His vision is to develop the Stanhope Dairy Farm into 21 glass-and-metal, high-security greenhouses that could bring jobs and a windfall of taxes for the District of Central Saanich.

A new report offers Agricultural Land Reserve parcels as a welcome alternative to marijuana production on in-demand industrial land.

Commercial real estate in Vancouver will see unprecedented demand with the legalization of recreational marijuana this summer, presenting a lucrative opportunity for Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) owners and a money-savvy alternative for producers.  

A new Colliers International report, Cannabis & ALR - Keep the Land, states recreational cannabis sales in Canada are expected to fetch up to $8.7 million in their first year and will continue to drive up demand for Vancouver industrial land. 

A Kamloops lawyer has expressed alarm following Monday's pot shop bust on Hillside Drive.

The Canna Clinic was shut down and two employees arrested after RCMP said the shop had been operating illegally within the City of Kamloops.

"I'm quite alarmed. So, when you read the news release from the RCMP, they're basically justifying this, saying, 'Well, these guys are blatantly breaking the law because they are failing to follow the Kamloops bylaw,'" says Shawn Buckley, principal lawyer with Buckley and Company. "Well, Kamloops will not issue a business license. So, the city itself is creating the illegal behaviour."

INVICTUS MD STRATEGIES CORP. ("Invictus" or the "Company") (TSXV: GENE; OTC: IVITF; FRA: 8IS1) is pleased to announce that the Acreage Pharms Ltd ("Acreage Pharms") 33,000 square foot, purpose built Phase 2 production facility is complete.  Land clearing and site preparation for its 80,000 square foot Phase 3 expansion project has commenced giving the licensed producer a total of 120,000 square feet of growing space by the end of 2018. Acreage Pharms is also working on plans to increase total capacity to 360,000 square feet in 2019. Invictus is fully funded for the Phase 3 expansion.

Acreage Pharms Phase 1 & Phase 2 (CNW Group/Invictus MD Strategies)

There's another indication that marijuana legalization is going to feel like Prohibition 2.0 for some in B.C.'s thriving cannabis sector.

That's because the NDP government has revealed that seeds will be included in the list of products being monitored in the federal cannabis tracking system.

"Additionally, the Liquor Distribution Branch will maintain its own product listing system for any products, including seeds, that it acquires from licensed producers and distributes to public stores, private retail stores, or sells through the online sales system."

The revelation came in response to questions posed to the province by Deepak Anand. He's vice president of business development and government relations with a consulting firm called Cannabis Compliance Inc.

BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS) is pleased to announce that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Bliss Co Holdings Ltd. ("BlissCo"), has received its order of cuttings at its facility in Langley. BlissCo received the cuttings on May 2, 2018, from 7ACRES which is a Licensed Producer and wholly owned subsidiary of The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. (TSX.V: FIRE).

British Columbians are seeing the beginnings of a debate emerge in our province about the merits of cannabis cultivation on B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve, and a call to amend the current laws to bar cannabis producers from using the ALR.

The ALR was created to preserve arable farm land in B.C., and in 2015, the provincial government amended the ALR regulation to allow licensed medical-cannabis cultivation.

This was done after the Agricultural Land Commission concluded in 2014 that the production of licensed medical cannabis is consistent with the definition of “farm use” in the act. That means government thinks that cannabis farming is, in fact, farming and therefore just as suitable to cultivate the ALR as other farming operations.

Following a site visit to the company’s British Columbia facilities, Canaccord Genuity analyst Neil Maruoka has raised his target price on Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED), though the analyst is not yet recommending investors buy the stock.

Maruoka toured Canopy’s B.C. Tweed facilities in Aldergrove and came away affected by what he saw.

Recent investments, partnerships and acquisitions in the Canadian cannabis industry highlight the importance of recreational branding as the country transitions focus from medical marijuana to adult-use, recreational cannabis. The marketing of recreational products to a mass audience differs significantly from the marketing of medical products to a narrower audience, and an examination of investments in the space can serve to put a perceived value on brands that are focused on the mass market.

Data released by Statistics Canada provides new information about the amount of cannabis Canadians consumed in 2017.

The so-called cannabis provincial and territorial economic accounts are based on estimates detailing the production, consumption, and distribution of cannabis in Canada's different economies.

According to the accounts, approximately 4.9 million Canadians aged 15 to 64 spent a combined total of roughly $5.6 million on cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes, with consumption varying greatly from one region to the next.