Vancouver taxpayers regularly subsidize public booze parties that cost millions, yet city officials are trying to rouse anger against pot protestors for the meager expense of their legalization rallies.

In Vancouver, the annual 4/20 rally has a peak crowd of about 25,000 and total attendance closer to 35,000. It has been attacked by city officials for supposedly costing the city $93,000.

An Essex County medical marijuana producer has pledged $100,000 to the Arthritis Society for research on marijuana as treatment for osteoarthritis.

Leamington-based Aphria Inc.  is one of two licensed producers from Ontario that pledged $100,000 each to fund the first robust investigation on medical cannabis’ impact on arthritis pain management.

“The research right now is reasonably experimental, we have a lot of anecdotal information, but not a lot of hard evidence to be able to say that from a pain and inflammation perspective, medical cannabis is the right treatment and safe and effective,” said Joanne Simons, chief missions officer of the Arthritis Society.

HALIFAX – The Arthritis Society has announced it is funding research into medical cannabis at Dalhousie University.

In a media release, the society said Dr. Jason McDougall was awarded a three-year research grant to look into how the drug impacts arthritis pain.

The Arthritis Society previously promised more studies into medical marijuana in September last year.

“People living with arthritis pain are looking for alternatives to improve their quality of life,” Janet Yale, president and CEO of The Arthritis Society said in the release.

“Our goal is to give Canadians the ability to make informed choices about their treatment options … This project is an important step to achieving these goals.”

But majority of British Columbians are opposed to banning the sale of edibles

The City of Vancouver’s regulations governing marijuana dispensaries are overwhelmingly supported by people throughout the region and province, according to a new survey by Insights West.

Sixty-seven per cent of British Columbians support the bylaw overall, including 65 per cent of respondents in Metro Vancouver and 75 per cent on Vancouver Island.

Charging dispensaries a $30,000 licence fee was supported by 64 per cent in B.C. and 68 per cent in Metro Vancouver.

TAMPA, Fla.--(Business Wire)--Neutra Corp. (OTCBB:NTRR) and Surface to Air Solutions (S2O2) could soon take their partnership international as talks opened this week to bring the joint venture’s pesticide-free growing solutions to cannabis growers in Canada.

Whether smoking marijuana contributes to weight gain may depend on how much pot a person smokes, in addition to other factors such the person's gender, according to a new study.

Smoking marijuana often gives people the munchies — a sudden increase in appetite that can make them eat a lot at once — so researchers wanted to examine whether this drive to eat might mean that people who smoke pot put on extra pounds over time.

The city’s oldest marijuana compassion clubs and other non-profit dispensaries may be able to sidestep the city’s new bylaw that restricts them from being near schools and community centres.

Councillor Kerry Jang, Vision Vancouver’s spokesman on marijuana issues, has said new rules barring any pot shops within 300 metres of schools, community centres or other similar stores will apply to all Vancouver’s existing 100 dispensaries. This could mean up to two-thirds may have to move to secure a special new business licence.

As the Conservative government’s champion in the war on pot, Health Minister Rona Ambrose has taken some heavy blows and faces the prospect of more.

Ms. Ambrose was “outraged” in early June when the Supreme Court ruled that legal medical-marijuana users would be permitted to eat the drug as well as smoke it. She was “deeply disappointed” last week when Vancouver said it would regulate marijuana dispensaries, most of which obtain their supply from unauthorized sources.

Her government’s efforts a year ago to end the right of medical-pot users to legally grow cannabis in their homes have been temporarily thwarted by a court challenge and could ultimately be struck down as a violation of civil rights.

MARKHAM, Ont. – From the outside, MedReleaf’s production facility in Markham, Ont., doesn’t look like much. It’s a large rectangular building about three stories tall, shorter but wider than a football field, and camouflaged by an unassuming white exterior with few windows. There are no signs or company logos to tempt inquiring minds or mischief-minded passers-by.

That’s partly by design, CEO Neil Closner said.

“We’re very low-key,” he said. “We don’t want people knowing who we are, what we do, where we do it.

“The product we have inside the building is quite valuable.”

The product: Medical marijuana.

A research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience has tested the levels of pain sensitivity among male and female. To know the same, study researchers used male and female mice and came to know both genders experience the same levels of pain sensitivity. But they were activated through different immune cells during response.

The researchers wanted to know the gender differences in pain response, so that new therapies could be more successful when they enter the market. In the experiment, the male and female mice were injured on foot and were then given medicine.