In a triumph for sanity and compassion, British Columbia has declared mandatory minimum prison sentences for cannabis producers to be unconstitutional.

The unwitting engine of this development: Keith Steven Elliott, a man in the southern B.C. city of Kelowna, who spent two years working a $20-an-hour job trimming homegrown cannabis destined for resale on the black market. When the grow-op was busted in 2013, Elliott found himself charged under Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which mandates a six-month minimum prison sentence for anyone caught producing between six and 200 plants for the purpose of trafficking. (The grow-op employing Elliott held 195 plants.)

Aurora Cannabis (ACB.V: TSX Venture) (ACBFF: OTCQX) announced another strategic investment today after it created a 19.9% position in Hempco Food and Fiber (HEMP.V: TSX Venture). Aurora also will obtain an option to acquire shares from the majority owners of Hempco and increase its ownership interest to 50.1% on a fully diluted basis.

An East Ladner greenhouse operation plans to get into the large scale production of marijuana.

Village Farms International today announced it has formed a joint venture with Emerald Health Therapeutics, a B.C.-based licensed producer of medical cannabis, for the purpose of producing, cultivating and distributing wholesale cannabis and cannabis extracts for medical purposes. Also, if permitted by law, the operation plans to grow pot for “non-therapeutic” purposes.

Village Farms is initially contributing 25 acres of their greenhouse facility on Highway 10 for cannabis production. The joint venture also outlines an option to lease or purchase an additional 85 acres.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") (TSXV: ACB) (OTCQX: ACBFF) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) and Radient Technologies ("Radient") (TSX-V: RTI) are pleased to announce the successful completion of their Joint Venture Research Activity ("JV"), confirming the effectiveness of Radient's proprietary MAP^TM Technology and associated continuous flow design for extracting cannabinoids from dried cannabis. 

A Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer is the first to get a Health Canada permit to grow cannabis using natural sunlight.

Tantalus Labs founder Dan Sutton says SunLab is the new generation of sustainable, natural and highly controlled infrastructure for growing weed.

“It’s sort of unreasonable to grow virtually any plant in an indoor, artificial environment where one is trying to replicate nature. We’re really proud of our knowledge or quality assurance, of processed standardization, of creating efficiencies and repeatability out of processes and systems in an agricultural environment.”

He adds it’s one-of-a-kind, and took five years to develop.

A licensed marijuana producer on the outskirts of Duncan is poised to become one of the Cowichan Valley’s largest employers once the expansion of its new facility is complete.

Harvest One Cannabis Inc. currently grows more than 4,000 marijuana plants in its 16,000 square-foot space.

“We currently have 15 people on staff here and are currently growing as we expand,” said Michael Rykes, United Greeneries production manager. “We hope to have probably about 50 new people on the new site.”

The United Greeneries productions site will break ground on a greenhouse operation in the near future.

Once construction is complete, up to 100 jobs will hit the market starting at $20 an hour.

While cannabis-related police incidents continue to make the news in other parts of the country (ahem, Toronto), the Vancouver Police Department has ignored Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's call to continue arrests for possession despite plans for legalization.

Instead, the VPD has said it's prioritized the city's overdose crisis.

Released last week, the department's annual report for 2016 reveals a significant drop in cannabis-related offences, from 861 in 2015 to 660 in 2016.

That's a decline of 24.1 percent.

Vancouver-headquartered Tantalus Labs has become B.C.’s 10th Health Canada-licensed medical marijuana producer, aiming to start sales sometime in the summer of 2018 under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes regulations.

In an interview Monday, CEO Dan Sutton said Tantalus received word Friday that it was approved, which allows it to start acquiring materials and planting seed crops, including clone plants, at its high-tech greenhouse facility in Maple Ridge, which has the capacity to grow up to 10,000 kilograms of cannabis per year.

Cannabis Wheaton (TSX: CBW.V) (OTC: KWFLF) is a newly traded Canadian cannabis company that has received significant coverage since it started trading due its management team and differentiated strategy.

Although the company is focused on cannabis production, it does not actually produce cannabis. Cannabis Wheaton invests and partners with licensed Canadian medical cannabis companies that are in various stages of the licensing process.

This year's 4-20 marijuana day of protest in Vancouver cost the city more than $245,000.

The city says estimates 40,000 people were at Sunset Beach Park and the Vancouver Art Gallery during the April 20 protest.

The city says in a news release that police costs came to over $170,000, while other costs such as sanitation, and fire and rescue pushed the costs even higher.

The city refused to grant a permit to protest organizers, but the event went ahead without approval.

The release says the bill doesn't include ambulance service or hospital costs.

The city says it will bill the organizers of the Sunset Beach event to recover expenses.