Non-profit societies active in Vancouver’s multi-million-dollar retail pot sector have reported a wide range of annual revenues, from under $80,000 for one society to more than $3.7 million for another, with those totals almost matched by substantial expenses, according to financial statements obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

At the higher end of reported revenues, the Vancouver Dispensary Society, which has two locations, saw revenues between $3.3 million and $3.7 million over each of the last four years.

Medical-marijuana patients won a court battle at the beginning of this year allowing them to grow their own cannabis at home, but they have no legal way to obtain the seeds or seedlings at an affordable price.

Ottawa tweaked its medical-cannabis regime two months ago, after a Federal Court ruling in February found the government was “over broad and arbitrary” in banning home growing in favour of a mail-order system supplied by a network of large commercial growers.

Vancouver-based Aurora Cannabis (TSXV:ACB) today reported its fourth quarter and fiscal 2016 results, and though the company posted a hefty loss it predicted better days ahead.

For fiscal 2016, Aurora lost $5.7-million on revenue of $1.4-million. The company posted no revenue in fiscal 2015, as it only began to sell medical marijuna products on January 5 of this year.

Aurora CEO Terry Booth characterized the year, one in which the company raised $68-million, made what it feels were key hires, and strengthened its board.

Health Canada market data for the past few years shows that British Columbians and Quebecers appear to prefer the black market over Canada’s legal medical cannabis system. 

Despite being the second and third largest provinces in Canada, with over 8 million and 4.7 million people respectively, shipments to registered patients in Quebec and British Columbia are some of the lowest in the country. 

Patients registered in Quebec only received 2,457 shipments in August. BC, only 2,534. The same month saw 34,757 shipments to registered clients in Ontario and 12,986 in Alberta. Previous data shows similar figures in the past. 

A new survey conducted by the Centre for Addictions Research of BC helps explain why Big Pharma is so afraid of cannabis.

The pharmaceutical and alcohol industries, both powerful influences in Washington, have long lobbied against cannabis legalization in order to protect their profits.

However, the tide has turned as decriminalization of medical and recreational cannabis sweeps the nation and the continent. With legalization, more and more people are discovering how this plant can provide a safe alternative to the dangerous effects of prescription pills.

British Columbians are split on how recreational marijuana should be sold once it’s legal, but stand-alone shops like the dispensaries that line Vancouver’s streets are the most popular option, according to a new poll.

The latest survey from Insights West suggests 38 per cent of people in this province would prefer to see pot-specific stores, beating out weed sales in pharmacies (23 per cent) or liquor stores (24 per cent).

That’s welcome news to Sunny Bhayana, co-director of The Herb Co. on Main Street, one of the few licensed shops in Vancouver. He believes the dispensary system could have a potent effect on the country’s economy.

Master horticulturalist Francoise Levesque tends to the thousands of marijuana plants at Tilray, one of 35 federally licensed producers of medicinal marijuana that have brought pot growing “from the basement into the light.”

“We are pioneering, in a way, how to do things,” says Levesque, who was growing tomatoes before joining the Vancouver Island company.

But pioneering is rarely easy work.

Tilray won a coveted licence in 2014 for the previous Conservative government’s mail-order medical pot system, but, like many of the licensed producers, has since endured a boom-and-bust cycle.

At Vancouver’s next big weed get-together, you can expect less tie-dye and more suit-and-tie.

Organizers of the International Cannabis Business Conference this week at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver expect a crowd of 650 or more to attend over Thursday and Friday.

And with tickets to attend the conference running upwards of $600 each, the event might have more of a corporate feel than the average 4/20 rally. 

29-year-old the lead agronomist for a Whistler marijuana company.

As a 14-year-old loading soil at a Quebec poinsettia greenhouse, David Bernard-Perron never would have expected he'd grow up to be the lead agronomist for a marijuana company in Whistler. 

But at 29, that's exactly what he's doing, and the company he works for is at the forefront of quickly growing industry.

Bernard-Perron says the poinsettia job can be credited with getting him interested in plant sciences, but even as a student working on a masters degree in organic agriculture at McGill University, he wasn't especially interested in cannabis. He barely had any experience working with it, and he didn't count himself as a recreational user.

Municipal leaders will debate several pot related resolutions at the annual UBCM gathering in Victoria.

Local government leaders will spend a lot of time talking about marijuana this week at their annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria.

With the federal government looking to legalize the recreational use of marijuana sometime next year, up to four resolutions dealing with pot will be discussed.

Regulation

One asks senior levels of government to consult with their local counterparts when coming up with new regulations for legalized marijuana.