Bake it, brew it, flake it, eat it – but you don’t have to smoke it.

Canada’s highest court today (June 11/15) released its long awaited Smith decision, finding that restricting the consumption of medical marijuana to dried marijuana only violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and as a result, the governing legislation was struck down. Possessing non-dried forms of cannabis, such as oils and edibles, is no longer a criminal act.

Let’s be clear: this ruling does not legalize the possession or consumption of marijuana for the general public. This ruling does not create any new rights. What it does do is allow medical patients with proper medical authorization to consume the doctor prescribed marijuana in a format other than smoking.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that users of marijuana for medical purposes have the right to bake the drug into cookies, take it in lozenge form or as topical oils, in addition to smoking it.

In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the court said that federal law limiting medical marijuana use to smoking the dried form is arbitrary, and runs counter to the government’s stated objective of protecting health and safety. “The evidence amply supports the trial judge’s conclusions that inhaling marihuana can present health risks and that it is less effective for some conditions than administration of cannabis derivatives,” the court ruled, in a decision signed collectively by “the court,” which sometimes happens to give institutional weight to a ruling.

VANCOUVER — A public hearing on Vancouver’s proposal to regulate pot shops is heating up with more than 150 people set to speak.

Pot-legalization advocates, dispensary owners and patients crammed city hall on Wednesday evening as the hearing began.

City manager Penny Ballem says the number of authorized medical marijuana users in British Columbia accounts for nearly half of all those in Canada.

The city is proposing new regulations to control the rapid growth of illegal pot shops, which have multiplied from fewer than 20 to 94 over the past three years.

The regulations would include a new business licence category, a $30,000 fee and a requirement that stores be 300 metres away from schools, community centres and other pot shops.

The Lift Cannabis Forum Series is our attempt to expand on the conversations and topics relevant to the current medical marijuana industry in Canada, from the perspective of patients, producers, doctors, activists and more. Medical cannabis is a subject that continues to grow in popularity in Canada and around the globe, and we feel it important to help ensure the conversations on the subject are as nuanced and informed as they need to be.

The Hendrix family dynamic is going to pot again.

The latest scuffle comes after Jimi Hendrix's brother Leon announced that his Purple Haze Properties was going into partnership with Canada's Nutritional High for a line of Jimi-themed cannabis products, including "hemp oil infused gummy bears, hard candies and health and energy drinkables."  The proposed products will have names such as Stone Free and Purple Haze, after Hendrix's songs.

City says organizers do not have a permit to set up tents on July 1 at the Vancouver Art Gallery

The City of Vancouver has told organizers of an annual Canada Day marijuana festival to 'cease and desist' any marketing or promotion because they have not obtained a permit.

'Cannabis Day' is held every year on July 1 in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Thousands of people usually show up to support marijuana legalization and peruse the smorgasbord of pot products— like candies, cookies, lemonade, and free joints — offered by cannabis vendors in pop-up tents.

OTTAWA -- New regulations which increase oversight around the authorization of marijuana for medical use have gone into effect.

The federal government says the updated rules are a response to requests from medical licensing bodies to increase the information available to them on how doctors are authorizing marijuana.

The regulations require licensed producers of medical marijuana to provide quarterly reports to health-care licensing bodies, like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, on how health-care practitioners are authorizing the use of marijuana.

Construction appears to have been halted on a massive medical marijuana grow operation planned for Stellarton.

According to a Vida Cannabis news release, it is attempting to reduce expenditures while it waits for approval from Health Canada for its required security clearance.

“Because of the lack of visibility regarding timelines for security clearance, we feel it is prudent to pace our expenditures until we have a better idea of our progress in the licensing process,” reads the release.

“We are working together with Lindsay Construction, with their full support, on a construction timeline and budget that takes into account the longer than anticipated wait at the security clearance stage.”

WHITEFISH, MT / ACCESSWIRE / June 10, 2015 / Consistency is key. This is the philosophy under which Nutritional High is building its business from day 1. Headlines abound about marijuana edibles containing anywhere from 0 to 200% of the dosage stated on the package. Some purveyors of edibles, be it homemade brownies or products purchased at dispensaries, find dosing an issue. Testing in Colorado confirms that dosing is a significant challenge for marijuana edible companies as they try to ramp up production, and this is a challenge Nutritional High is taking up.

June 9, 2015 — In a special InvestorIntel interview, Publisher Tracy Weslosky and Senior Editor Peter Clausi discuss the recent trends in the medical marijuana industry. They explain reasons for uncertainties in the market such as the Supreme Court of Canada case regarding what forms of marijuana may be ingested. Clausi goes on to say that though there is still capital available, there will be more certainty in the sector once the court cases are decided.