Following is a free preview of a Regulatory Focus feature article, normally exclusively available to RAPS members. For information about becoming a member, visit Join RAPS. This article presents an overview of Canada's medical marijuana regulations regarding individual prescription access and compliance measures for licensed producers.

VANCOUVER — To tax or not to tax — that is the unanswered question now that Vancouver City Council has decided to regulate its marijuana dispensaries.

Various levels of government are finding themselves in an awkward situation as they determine whether to impose taxation on the businesses — and thereby confer further legitimacy on a commercial activity related to cannabis.

According to Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, cannabis possession remains a federal offence unless it is for medicinal use and the user has a doctor’s prescription.

Boys genetically predisposed to schizophrenia who try cannabis before 16 experience changes in brain development according to a new study, in a finding that could help researchers understand why some people are more vulnerable to the effects of the drug.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that the boys developed a thinner cerebral cortex than their peers over time, which could signal that cannabis somehow interferes with the development of that part of the brain. The heaviest cannabis users experienced the most significant changes.

This week, the international stock markets may be giving business people and investors palpitations, but the commodities markets worldwide have been down in the dumps for a long time. So-called “junior miners”—those who explore for metals like copper, gold, and iron ore—are largely out of work. Traders and investors in commodities are looking elsewhere to make a buck, and this problem can be seen worldwide, from Canada to Australia and everywhere in between.

So what are miners and those who deal and trade in metals to do?

If you’ve had enough of your nine-to-five’s wearying toil, perhaps a change of vocation is in order. The Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver can recommend an intriguing alternative starting this September: selling pot.

The shady-looking fellow on the corner will tell you that you hardly need a college diploma to sell weed for a living. But Kwantlen’s new 14-week online course will sculpt aspiring dealers into professionals in a robust – and newly legal – field.

The course promises to be a rigorous survey of the landscape of marijuana production and sale, educating prospective growers in everything from irrigation to marketing.

So what exactly makes for a good professional manager of marijuana for medical purposes?

A meeting of the city's Planning Advising Committee (PAC) on Monday saw the committee approve a motion for establishing criteria for medical marijuana facilities.

Senior planner Mary Joyce-Smith presented the report to council and members of the public.

"What it's doing is setting up a critieria. You're always going to put it through site-plan [and] be aware of the regulations," Joyce-Smith said.

Joyce-Smith noted that there would be a 150-metre setback in residential areas for medical marijuana facilities and that all facilities would be located indoors.

Marijuana users are often stereotyped as unhealthy, munchie-ridden, fast food devotees, but a new study in the Journal of Obesity could turn the turn the popular assumption on its head.

A study comparing cannabis users to those who abstained from the drug found there was an association between marijuana use and a lower weight range and lower risk of diabetes.

TORONTO , Aug. 24, 2015 /CNW/ - At a special meeting held today, shareholders of Bedrocan Cannabis Corp. (BED.V) ("the Company" or "Bedrocan") overwhelmingly approved the proposed plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") involving the acquisition by Tweed Marijuana Inc. (TWD.V) ("TMI" or "Tweed") of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Bedrocan. The Arrangement remains subject to the final approval of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario at a hearing scheduled to be held on August 26, 2015 and subject to satisfaction or waiver of all other conditions specified in Bedrocan's management information circular dated July 20, 2015 .

On July 27, 2015, the Federal Court conditionally certified a class action with respect to an alleged privacy breach arising from the federal government’s administration of the Marihuana Medical Access Program (the Program). In Doe v Her Majesty the Queen, 2015 FC 916, the plaintiffs alleged that Health Canada publicly identified them as members of the Program by mailing oversized envelopes which had the return address of the “Marihuana Medical Access Program” visible on the outside. The certified class could include the approximately 40,000 people who received these envelopes between November 12 and 15, 2013.

The sale of booze in supermarkets is a nice idea of you like a drink; it’s hell on those who have trouble with their drinking.

The newspapers unfurl on the kitchen table every morning, and for an hour I am an old-school general of the news, absorbing fresh troop movements and daily atrocities.

It is early and I am not done with coffee, nor have I eaten an orange or an egg, when the LCBO ad insert falls out of the paper, and I suddenly feel the need for clear gin in bottles blue or green, and a pale cold glass of pilsner, and rye whiskey splashed over crystal cubes of ice and, yes, a delicate glass of wine as dark as blood.

It is not yet 8:00 a.m.