VANCOUVER — Marc Emery's online magazine, Cannabis Culture, encourages marijuana use during pregnancy for relief of nausea, loss of appetite and to help get emotions under control.

"Most studies say cannabis is perfectly safe during pregnancy, but it's controversial, of course," said Jodie Emery, Marc's wife, a well-known marijuana activist who failed in her attempt to run for the Liberal Party.

In an online article, Dr. Kathy Galbraith, known as "Dr. Kate," writes: "Pot can be safely used during pregnancy, and can help with several of the discomforts/problems associated therewith.

A New Brunswick family has some tough questions over the prescribing and use of medical marijuana. They believe it may have played a part in the death of a husband and father.

Steve Saunders of Fredericton was prescribed medical marijuana to help him cope with an old shoulder injury and they claim that under its influence he became manic.

He lost control of his life, drove away family and friends, emptied his savings and eventually killed himself.

In March 2014, Saunders was given a one-year prescription for 10 grams a day of medical marijuana, enough for about 16 joints. He started taking the marijuana the following month.

A  worker at a Louisville, Colorado, dispensary handles bags of marijuana delivered March 27 by CannaRabbit. Couriers do more than carry pot for the state's network of more than 800 growers, manufacturers, dispensers and laboratories. The industry remains mostly cash only as federally chartered banks have been hesitant to extend loans for trade that U.S. authorities may see as against the law.

At a farm in the foothills of Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Corey Young tucks his client's marijuana into a shoebox-sized container in an unmarked white van and heads out on the road.

"We don't want to be going through a small town and have someone see bins in the back," said Young, a founder of courier service CannaRabbit. "We do not want to stick out at all."

Medical marijuana shops popping up all over Metro Vancouver are giving parents and their children the wrong impression about weed, says an addictions specialist.

“Using the term ‘medical’ is giving a false impression to people — parents and kids,” says Dr. Siavash Jafari, who works out of several Vancouver Coastal Health clinics in Vancouver and also the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

“To say ‘medical’ means it is supported by the medical community. It is not. That’s a misconception among the public.” he says.

“Parents feel that it’s not dangerous so they don’t talk to their kids about it.”

DES MOINES — Everyone knows that politics makes strange bedfellows.

A pair of Linn County legislators has — unintentionally — taken that to a new level: They call the same house home.

But not at the same time.

Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, and Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, both call — or have called — 2905 Alleghany Dr. NE home.

Paulsen grew up there from the late 1960s to 1983 when he left to attend the University of Iowa. Sixteen years later, Staed and his wife, Susan, bought the house and reared their children there.

“I wasn’t involved in politics back then,” Staed says. “I didn’t know Kraig at that time.”

A recent report by The Arcview Group showed that legalized marijuana is now the fastest growing industry in the U.S., posting a whopping 74% growth rate in 2014. Despite a widespread movement to legalize marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes across the country, though, the industry still faces some serious challenges on the legal front that investors need to understand. 

So, to give investors a deeper look at some of the more pressing legal issues, I spoke with a leading expert on medical marijuana, Aaron Lachant -- an attorney with the healthcare specialist law firm Nelson Hardiman LLP.

Canadians buying legal marijuana have a much slimmer selection than their American counterparts. That’s because Health Canada-licensed producers are allowed to sell only dried cannabis through the mail to registered patients and must stay away from “edibles” or other forms of the drug that are regulated south of the border.

However, like medicinal and recreational pot sold in Washington State, Canada’s 17 licensed producers offer dozens of strains of dried leaves that help patients treat a range symptoms. Canadian producers must also display the potency of the batch’s tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) content, as enforced under the federal Ministry of Health’s current Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations.

A Gatineau-based company is the newest player in Canada's medical marijuana market. Hydropothecary is licensed to grow the plants; now it's hoping within weeks to get the green light from Health Canada to start selling it. The facility is on an 80-acre farm along the Outaouais River in Gatineau.  For decades, the owner of the farm in rural Gatineau has been growing potted plants on his 80-acre farm.  Now, Louis Gagnon is focusing just on "pot". Gagnon has teamed up with two brothers-in-law, Sébastien St-Louis and Adam Miron.  Their company Hydropothecary has purchased his land to build a massive 35-thousand square foot greenhouse for medical marijuana.

Anti-legalization group Project SAM released a new video this week comparing marijuana’s recent rise to that of tobacco’s past ascents. The group released the video, above, in conjunction with the National Rx Abuse Summit and the affiliated SAM Marijuana Education Summit.

“I hope people realize that marijuana legalization is all about creating Big Tobacco 2.0: A massive industry that has to keep profits flowing by denying health harms and increasing addiction,” SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) president and legalization opponent Kevin Sabet told The Cannabist.

The 'green rush' appears to be over, but local medical marijuana producer taking a slow, steady approach to growth

The bloom may be off the bud from the so-called dot.bong era when there was a rush of investment dollars into the licensed medical marijuana market last spring and summer.

But Bill and John Arbuthnot -- the father and son who founded Winnipeg's only licensed medical marijuana producer, Delta 9 Bio-Tech Inc. -- believe there is plenty of time for patient investors to make solid returns.

One of the first group of 13 producers licensed by Health Canada in April 2014 -- there are now 17, plus an additional eight licensed for cultivation only -- Delta 9 has been working the kinks out as it grows.