After four months of planning and preparation, Saskatoon's first medicinal marijuana dispensary is now open for business.

The Saskatchewan Compassion Club opened its doors to the public on Monday. For many, like Mandy Tarala, the new dispensary will offer a way to fill medical pot prescriptions quickly and easily. "It's going to be absolutely huge for me in the aspect that I no longer have to wait for my medicine (and) I don't have to order it online," Tarala said. "Also, I have some support (locally) - that way I'm not waiting for an email back or waiting on hold."

A numbered company authorized to grow medical marijuana is suing the District of Maple Ridge, claiming the municipality is wrongfully trying to recover costs associated

A numbered company authorized to grow medical marijuana is suing the District of Maple Ridge, claiming the municipality is wrongfully trying to recover costs associated with a police raid on the firm’s property in August 2013.

Mark Hauk, of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, is set to open up a new medical marijuana dispensary on Second Avenue.

A new medical marijuana dispensary will open its doors today on Second Avenue. The man behind the dispensary, Mark Hauk, will also be in front of council to ask for the city to regulate the industry.

Hauk is with the Saskatchewan Compassion Club, an organization that describes itself as assisting people in medical need to get a prescription for marijuana and to find a safe and quality supply of the drug.  

Hauk said the current rules on medical marijuana aren't working. 

"The federal system right now, is causing sick and dying people in our community to needlessly suffer," he saidSays wait times and prices are a factor

Donald Briere’s conviction record goes back to 1972

VANCOUVER -- Recent court documents allege a Vancouver-based pot shop kingpin has a lengthy criminal record, has been selling pot to 16-year-olds and claims to have been threatened by the Hells Angels.

The information is contained in a police application for a warrant to raid Weeds Glass + Gifts at 2916 West 4th Ave. near Macdonald Street, which is run by Donald Briere.

The revelation is second this month illustrating the involvement of organized crime in the pot dispensary business.

Only medical marijuana is legal in the country

If you were ever thinking about growing and selling marijuana, Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia may have the course for you.

This fall, the university will offer a course called Introduction to Professional Management of Marijuana for Medical Purposes in Canada, believed to be the first of its kind, which will teach students how to operate a marijuana business under new government regulations.

When the program guide for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival came out this past June, it included advertisements for four dispensaries that illegally sell marijuana. The dispensaries are among the hundred or so pot shops that have opened up throughout the city in the past several years.

Soon after Health Canada caught wind of the ads, the department contacted festival organizers and demanded the ads be pulled from both the online and print versions of the guide. A spokesman for Health Canada told the media that any business promoting the sale of marijuana could face a maximum penalty of $5-million, two years in prison, or both. The organizers, unaware they were illegal, immediately complied.

The BBC, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, countless international publications, blogs and websites have published this ridiculous story.

Apparently, Novak Djokovic felt “dizzy” because he could smell cannabis during his Rogers Cup semi-final win over Jérémy Chardy in Montreal.  Now let’s be clear, the smell of cannabis comes from terpenes, not from cannabinoids.  It cannot get you high or dizzy.

Novak Djokovic complained of being put off by the smell of cannabis on court during his Rogers Cup semi-final win over Jérémy Chardy.

After winning the first set 6-4 on Saturday, the world No1 approached the umpire’s chair and said: “Someone is smoking weed, I can smell it, I’m getting dizzy. Somebody is getting high. Can you smell it? The whole place smells of it.”

Nonetheless Djokovic went on to win the second set 6-4 and reach Sunday’s final, where he will resume his rivalry with Andy Murray.

Pass the joint.

Marijuana is not as addictive as heroin nor a gateway drug, a new report says, and regulating its use does no harm to the public.

The blunt talk comes from a groundbreaking new study issued Wednesday from the Toronto-based International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, which argues anti-pot activists are blowing smoke.

The center’s director, Dr. Dan Werb, said in the report, “More and more jurisdictions are reconsidering their policies on cannabis, yet the public discourse around cannabis is filled with frequently repeated claims that are simply not supported by the scientific evidence.”