Victoria city council has approved new regulations for medical cannabis businesses, but complying with the new bylaw won’t be cheap.

Starting immediately, a $5,000 business licence and $7,500 rezoning application are required for all shops where medicinal pot is sold.

The zoning restrictions prevent storefront cannabis retailers from being closer than 200 metres apart and also create an exclusion zone of the same distance around schools.

Pot shops opened since July 28 must immediately abide by the bylaw, meaning they can’t operate until all their paperwork is approved, but shops that were in business before then can stay open while their applications are processed.

Dr. Ian Mitchell is a Kamloops emergency room physician, with a keen interest in pot.

Specifically medicinal marijuana, and how it might be used as an anti anxiety medication and for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr. Mitchell is sharing what he knows as part of the Kamloops Adult Learners' Society programming for the fall.

To listen to the full interview, play below:

A two day marijuana exhibition in Vancouver is giving people an idea of just how large and varied Canada’s cannabis industry has become — and where it could grow next.

More than 100 businesses set up booths to showcase their wares at the event, but not a single cloud of smoke could be seen in the massive hall.

The expo is helping to break down stereotypes and prove that there’s a credible side to the industry, said Natasha Raey, spokeswoman for Lift Cannabis Co., which put on the show.

“It’s not just someone selling bud out of a ziploc bag anymore. You’re seeing real brand development. The industry is growing up,” she said.

A two day marijuana exhibition in Vancouver is giving people an idea of just how large and varied Canada's cannabis industry has become — and where it could grow next.

More than 100 businesses set up booths to showcase their wares at theVancouver Cannabis Expo, but not a single cloud of smoke could be seen in the massive hall.

The expo is helping to break down stereotypes and prove there's a credible side to the industry, said Natasha Raey, spokeswoman for Lift Cannabis Co., which put on the show.

"It's not just someone selling bud out of a ziploc bag anymore. You're seeing real brand development. The industry is growing up," she said.

There won’t be wreaths of smoke wafting overhead at this weekend’s Cannabis Expo at the cavernous Vancouver Convention Centre West.

It’s all business for more than 130 industry exhibitors, who will welcome an expected 10,000 of the curious on Saturday and Sunday, a month after the federal government introduced new regulations governing medical marijuana use, and less than a year before the expected legalization of recreational use for adults.

For the marijuana industry in B.C. and Canada, it’s the calm before a commercial storm — selling pot for medicinal use will be dwarfed by the trade in pot for recreational users.

B.C. researchers are launching the country’s first large-scale clinical trial on marijuana as a treatment for a mental health condition, testing whether pot can ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Zach Walsh, a clinical psychologist at the University of B.C.’s Okanagan campus, is leading the study, which will put the anecdotal experiences of combat veterans to the test.

Regulations include 200 metres separating dispensaries from each other, and schools.

After months of discussion, tough regulations are coming into effect for operators of Victoria’s 38 marijuana dispensaries.

City council voted last night to move ahead with the new Medical Cannabis Business License Bylaw.

That means that as of October first, all storefront marijuana retailers have to apply for a business license, and eventually, rezoning.

At last night’s public meeting, speakers made their case for:

“I’m really proud of the fact to be from a city that is thinking of this.”

“Just want thank council for being very progressive towards policy going forward.”

When he opened a medical marijuana shop in Kingston earlier this year, Trevor Hands had little idea who his customers would be, how much they would buy or how his business would grow simply through word of mouth.

He does now.

Business is booming for Hands, thanks in large part to an influx of business from a single demographic: former Canadian Forces soldiers.

Two years ago, the BC Pain Society’s marijuana dispensary at Commercial Drive and West 13th Avenue became an online sensation after it installed Canada’s first vending machine for pot.

Now, the organization’s owner is saying it will fight to keep the location open, despite an order to close by the city.

“They are saying they’re going to start some sort of enforcement on Saturday. I’m ready, I’ve been talking to a number of lawyers, and I’m looking at my options,” says Chuck Varabioff, owner of the BC Pain Society.

“I don’t agree with it. I don’t agree with it at all. We’re providing a service here for sick people.”

Three municipalities in British Columbia want a stake in any tax revenue that the federal government collects from the legalization of marijuana.

Nelson, Duncan and Prince George put forward resolutions to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities asking it to put pressure on higher levels of government to ensure tax sharing with municipalities is considered by the federal task force investigating marijuana legalization and regulation.

With eight dispensaries open in Nelson, Mayor Deb Kozak said determining how to regulate and monitor the technically illicit businesses has required considerable city and police resources.

“There is a real cost attached to that and we are not realizing any revenues from (the marijuana) industry at this time,” Kozak said.