Whether you’re a proponent or opponent of medical cannabis, the therapeutic drug is slowly building momentum in the capital with more businesses dedicated to its use.

The latest arrival is Canadian Cannabis Clinics. It will be opening an Ottawa clinic at the end of May in a medical building on Montreal Road, the fourth Ontario location to open in a year.

The business operates like any other medical clinic where patients see a doctor and use their OHIP card as payment, but these doctors focus on assessing whether medical cannabis should be prescribed. The owners stress no cannabis will be on site.

How does the clinic operate?

Lower Mainland mayors are keeping a close eye on Vancouver’s plan to regulate the over-the-counter sale of medicinal marijuana.

Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan told the Straight that in his city, the RCMP has been quick to act against anybody who’s tried to open a storefront dispensary. He said councillors are monitoring the situation in Vancouver, noting that attitudes are changing.

“When Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana, I think the dam was broken,” he explained. “There no longer is respect for laws against marijuana. That means there has to be a form of regulation.”

Legal repercussions from operating a Washington state facility unclear

Experts are uncertain whether it’s legal for Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis to build a facility in Washington state that will cultivate recreational pot | Photo: Shutterstock

Nowadays, a checklist for travellers heading south through the Peace Arch border crossing might include deals on eggs, shoes and – while they can’t admit it to U.S. federal border guards – recreational marijuana.

And with a U.S. market that dwarfs that of his native Canada, Terry Booth doesn’t see why companies north of the border can’t capitalize on the legal weed available to consumers in states like Alaska, Washington and Colorado.

Vancouver city council is debating how to best control the over-the-counter sale of medicinal marijuana. A proposed regulatory framework will eventually bring dozens of illegal businesses out of the shadows.

Exactly how many dispensaries exist and where they are located has been something of a mystery.

Manitoba firm says plant a vital part of 'right-fat' diet

It was 20 years ago when Mike Fata's desire to find a healthier lifestyle planted the seed that led him to co-found what has become the world's largest hemp food manufacturer.

"I was uneducated about health, fell prey to the fast food movement, and found myself weighing 300 pounds when I was 18," Fata recalled Wednesday.

Fata's brother helped him lose weight by getting him into a gym, but his diet still needed work.

"I learned the hard way about fatty acids," said Fata, who tried to cut fats from his diet. "I lost weight, but my health really turned negative from cutting key nutrients out of my diet."

Then Fata discovered the benefits of hemp foods.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia has released a new, updated version of their standard on Marijuana for Medical Purposes today.

Past a barbed-wire fence and motion sensors, and under the gaze of 31 cameras, Shawn Galbraith opens the door to a two-storey, windowless concrete structure amid the lush Central Saanich farmland. It’s the region’s worst-kept secret: a medical marijuana facility on Lochside Drive, next to the family-owned Michell’s Farm.

The head of the operation, Galbraith, has been reluctant to offer media tours because his company, Evergreen Medicinal Supply Inc., is in the final stage of Health Canada’s approval process, a complicated 18-month journey that he doesn’t want to jeopardize.

When news broke that Founders Fund, the proudly contrarian venture firm helmed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was going to invest a major $75 million in Privateer Holdings, a company focused on producing, distributing and educating consumers about legal marijuana, it opened the floodgates for other investors to barrel in.

We’ve since seen startups like Eaze, which just raised $10 million, and Y Combinator-backed Meadow.

OTTAWA -- The RCMP has voiced concerns to Health Canada about an Alberta company's plans to cultivate opium poppies over fears the medicinal project could attract drug-peddling criminals.

Lethbridge-based API Labs Inc. says it understands the national police force's worries, but insists the risk of criminal involvement can be managed with the proper precautions.

The national police force expressed its reservations about API Labs' activities during a conference call with several other federal agencies -- including Public Safety, the Privy Council Office and Health Canada -- in April last year, an internal RCMP briefing note reveals.

New legislation has rocked the medical marijuana world, taking the traditional grow op from suburban basements to mammoth warehouses. The new pot kings own suits, have smart haircuts and list their companies on the TSX, and they’re dead set on getting rich.

THE EGGHEAD
Marc Wayne, CEO of Bedrocan, a grower and importer of vaunted Dutch medical pot.