There has been much speculation from the financial world in the market potential of the MMPR (Canada’s Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulation), with investors encouraged by Health Canada’s estimates of some 450,000 potential patients by 2024. But what are these projections based on? It appears Health Canada  has derived their numbers based on the growth of the previous MMAR program, but is this a realistic measure of ‘customer’ growth in this new system?

Why does the Canadian government show blatant disrespect for Canadian marijuana growers?

That’s the question many of us are asking when we learn the Canadian government is facilitating a marijuana importation scheme in cahoots with the Australian government and an Australian “medical marijuana” company called AusCann.

AusCann is based on Norfolk Island, off Australia’s coast.

The company says it’s using two hectares of grow space to produce at least a ton of “medicinal cannabis” for export to the Canadian medical marijuana distribution system. It intends to create a “multi-million dollar” business exporting marijuana to Canada.

If you are at all interested in cannabis as a growing industry you are already aware that while the US Federal Government labels marijuana a schedule 1 drug with no medicinal benefits, they also hold a patent titled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” which was awarded in 2003. And while possession of the flower remains a serious criminal offence, President Obama and the US Attorney General have decided to allow individual States to determine their own set of rules within their borders.

In this video, Dr. Gabor Maté untangles the complex connections between the stresses of Western society, the prevalence of addiction and the so-called War on Drugs.

Maté, an addiction specialist who was born in Hungary but spent most of his life in Canada, explains that “the heart of addiction is always emotional loss.”

When the doctor worked with people suffering from addictions in Vancouver, he says, all his female patients and many of the men had experienced sexual abuse as children. That accounts for one half of pediatrician and psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott’s theory on two things that can go wrong in childhood. The first involves the things shouldn’t happen, like abuse and trauma, Maté says.

Merle Chambers, holding sign, says medical pot plant in Whonnock is the wrong place.

The question Liisa Cormode wants answered is why, when Tantalus Labs was looking for a spot for its medical marijuana operation, the city would have put Whonnock on the list of possible locations.

“Why did somebody from the municipality recommend this site given the water issues here?”

She was referring to statements made by Dan Sutton, of Tantalus Labs earlier that Maple Ridge staff had presented the company with a half dozen locations, one of which Tantalus chose as its site for a greenhouse operation to grow medical marijuana.

The governing council of the Rural Municipality of Wilton has an interesting proposal on their plate, following a public hearing that was held by the council on Thursday.

The topic of the hearing was an application by representatives of Agro Greens Natural Products Ltd, who are seeking the approval of a development application for a medical marijuana facility.

According to Glen Dow, reeve of the RM, the owners of the business approached council six months earlier, and asked about the council’s possible reaction to the business proposal.

“They stopped in and said ‘we’re considering this, does council have any absolute prohibitions to say get out of here, don’t ever come back?’”

“Council said no,” said Dow.

As part of the exploratory dialogue for one of my recent executive coaching assignments, a C-level executive of a decades-old business frankly admitted, “I don’t think I have the skills to lead the business to the next level.”

In his late thirties, the CEO in question had successfully led his organization to profitability from the brink of disaster in less than five years (after an experiment with professional management did not yield the desired result). By all accounts, he was a dynamic, motivated and purpose-driven leader with aspirations to build a great institution. He was skilled at empowering people and willing to give them space to operate. And yet, he was mired by self-limiting beliefs.

I probed him with the following two questions:

CannaSOS have recently launched their new app to help consumers stay in touch with medical marijuana information on the go.

The app aims to allow users to ask advice and seek answers from peers, medical professionals, activists and marijuana experts. Share your knowledge and experience with like-minded people. Share your publications, news, success stories, educational posts and other articles with the cannabis community and more.

Their following blog entry explains more:

Hello our mobile friends!

We understand the importance of being able to access CannaSOS on the go. Good news for all, as we have launched the CannaSOS app for Android and iOS will follow soon.

VANCOUVER – More than 150 people gathered in Maple Ridge Friday to protest a proposed medical marijuana facility at 272nd Street and Bell Avenue.

They say the greenhouse would be too close to homes and schools and that the facility is going to be much bigger than the 40,000 sq ft they were initially told it would be. It appears the facility will be 115,000 sq ft.

Medical marijuana company Tantalus Labs, which is building the greenhouse, has not yet received a license from the federal government but a building permit has been approved by the City of Maple Ridge.

RCMP seized more than 400 grams of marijuana and $35,000 cash from a home in Igloolik, Nunavut, on Wednesday. (RCMP)

Three people have been arrested in Igloolik, Nunavut, after RCMP seized more than 400 grams of marijuana and $35,000 cash from a home in the community.

Police​ executed a search warrant on Wednesday.

Drug paraphernalia were seized along with the marijuana and cash. Police say the drugs were meant for resale in Igloolik.

One woman and two men were arrested. The woman has been released and will appear in court. The two men remain in custody in Iqaluit.