The Federal Government has ordered an urgent review after a licence was granted to grow a commercial crop of marijuana on Australian soil.

The AusCann group announced plans to cultivate the drug on Norfolk Island and export medicinal cannabis to Canada, where doctors can grant approval for patients to purchase cannabis from licensed producers.

AusCann have been granted a growers licence by the parliament of Norfolk Island. Last year, a similar licence was vetoed by the Federal Government.

Norfolk Island is a self-governing territory more than 1000km from the Australian mainland.

It has a population of just over 2000 and covers an area of 34 square kilometres.

Capacity Increases with 12 Additional Growing Rooms Approved at Domestic Production Facility

An Australian company is about to start growing and exporting medicinal cannabis from the self-governing Australian territory of Norfolk Island.

AusCann Group Holdings has struck a landmark deal with the Norfolk Island government to grow a high-grade medicinal strain of cannabis from November. It intends to export its entire first crop to Canada by the middle of next year.

An initial one tonne of cannabis will be grown from a protected two-hectare site with production forecast to increase to 10 tonnes by 2018.

It will supply the sativa and sativa-dominant strains, which are unsuitable for growing in Canada’s indoor facilities.

Moncton, N.B. May 19, 2015 – OrganiGram Holdings Inc. (TSX-V: OGI) (OTC US:OGRMF) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has completed its second large harvest from one of the new flowering rooms and successfully increased the production yield. This harvest, consisting of over 100lbs of a variety of organically grown, non-irradiated strains, will be available to all registered clients over the next two to three weeks.

The Tories say pot must stay illegal. They're also laying groundwork for legalization.

On marijuana, Conservatives are 'traveling both sides of the fence.' Photo: Cannabis Culture, Creative Commons licensed.

SASKATOON – Michael Wileniec used to walk across the street from his Saskatoon high school several times a day and hang out with the rest of the smokers, although he was the only one puffing on prescribed medical marijuana.

His routine ended earlier this year when school officials told him he could not smoke prescribed weed on school grounds, nor could he attend classes while under its influence. Wileniec fought the ruling before the school board and lost.

“We got a reply back from the superintendent saying there’s no need for medical marijuana in the school and that a student under medical marijuana is a safety hazard to the faculty,” the 21-year-old said in an interview.

Considering that up until about 85 years ago, cannabis oil was used around the world to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer, it is not surprising that the phasing out of cannabis to treat illness coincided with the rise of pharmaceutical companies.

Rick Simpson, a medical marijuana activist, is on a crusade to help others heal. He regards cannabis as the most medicinally active plant on the face of the earth, and shared this apparent miracle with others — completely free of charge. He now has thousands of testimonials from those who were healed from ‘incurable’ disease to back up his claims ~ that cannabis annihilates cancer.

Lounge in the Loft owner Jeff Lundstrom shuttered the lounge after refusing to allow city inspectors to enter premise

Saskatoon's only marijuana lounge went out in a blaze of glory after the owner closed up shop in protest over a city inspection Monday.

The Lounge in the Loft owner Jeffrey Lundstrom hosted a final pot smoking event Saturday evening. Anyone over the age of 18 was invited, but an earlier promise of free marijuana was only available to those with medicinal prescriptions.

"It's a public disobedience. It was just a call out to just attempt to shine light on what's occurring," Lundstrom said.

Deep within a cedar forest in British Columbia, Dan Sutton is building what he hopes will be the most energy-efficient, high-technology greenhouse for growing cannabis. Spurred by the booming market for medical marijuana, he and a group of biologists and engineers have experimented for almost three years with digital sensors, lighting arrays, software programs and ventilators to design a greenhouse system with the lowest energy costs and highest crop yields.

“We said, ‘Let’s assume everything that’s ever been done in cannabis cultivation is wrong, and we have to build from the ground up,’” said Sutton, the 28-year-old managing director of Tantalus Labs in Vancouver.  “We have this broad realm of science that no one has been able to previously explore.”

TORONTO — Medical marijuana is currently legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. On a regular basis, studies are released supporting the use of cannabis for the use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite the growing calls to expand the use of marijuana for a host of medical conditions, psychiatrists should be hesitant as much of the data out there is inconclusive and marijuana use, even for supposed medicinal purposes, can lead to addiction in some cases, according to Kevin P. Hill, MD, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.