Proportion of respondents who got behind the wheel after using cannabis also up, says CAMH report.

With Ottawa poised to legalize recreational marijuana next year, researchers are keeping a close eye on use of the so-called demon weed, which has been steadily trending upward over the last couple of decades.

In Ontario, for instance, a survey released Wednesday by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found that year cannabis use virtually doubled between 1996 and 2015, rising from about eight per cent to almost 15 per cent of respondents.

Significant increases were found among all age groups, but especially among 18- to 29-year-olds, with the proportion of pot smokers jumping from about 18 per cent in 1996 to 38 per cent in 2015.

Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has teamed up with one of the first licensed cannabis growers to bring medical marijuana to First Nations.

Indigenous Roots is a joint venture between Mr. Fontaine and Cronos Group, which operates the Peace Naturals Project in Ontario and The Zone Produce Ltd. in British Columbia.

It would work co-operatively with First Nations to supply people living on and off reserves with the drug.

In a news release issued Tuesday morning, the partners say the idea is to allow First Nations to invest, operate, and participate in the economic opportunities related to the emerging cannabis industry.

Canopy Growth Corp. of Smiths Falls, Ont., has an agreement to buy rival Canadian medical cannabis producer Mettrum Health Corp.

The $430 million purchase -- which is subject to approval -- will be made with Canopy Growth shares, which closed at $11.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Mettrum shareholders will receive 0.7132 common shares of Canopy Growth per common share of Mettrum.

The deal will add “significant acreage” to Canopy Growth’s production capacity and bolster its product offering with two new national brands.

Canopy Growth’s bid for Mettrum represents the company’s most expensive acquisition to date, coming at a time when valuations across Canada’s marijuana industry are seeing massive gains.

There has been no rigorous study that's looked at compounds found in pot to reduce seizures.

Researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children are poised to begin a clinical trial using cannabis extracts to treat children with severe epilepsy whose seizures can't be controlled with existing medications.

The trial is believed to be the first in Canada to test an oral preparation that contains both CBD and THC, compounds in marijuana that have been shown in the lab and through anecdotal reports to have anticonvulsant properties in children with treatment-resistant epilepsy.

Vancouver dispensary owners are anxious about the federal government’s plan to legalize recreational marijuana but confident the process will eventually be to their benefit.

“We’ve sat with the federal task force and apparently made some really good impressions there,” Jeremy Jacob, president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD), told the Georgia Straight.

“Anne McLellan, the chair of the task force, she spent three hours at the Vancouver Compassion Club,” Jacob recounted. “And she came out saying, ‘How are we going to regulate these shops?’ And according to Mark Ware, the vice chair, he said that certain members of the task force had life-changing experiences while visiting dispensaries.”

Emblem Cannabis Corporation, Canada's most anticipated licensed producer of medical marijuana with plans to go public before the end of the year, is now open for business, opening the door for patients across the country to now register and fulfil orders on its website.

For the past several months Emblem has been developing and growing a variety of strains and their phenotypes, with a wide range of cannabinoids and terpenes and that catalogue of strains is expected to grow as cultivation space, and production expand substantially.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the government agency that manages alcohol sales across the province, is tapping into Kitchener-Waterloo’s startup community as it seeks to modernize the way it interacts with customers at its retail stores.

Even though the LCBO already has an innovation lab at its downtown Toronto headquarters, the scope of development there has been limited because of what the LCBO admits is a lagging approach to problem-solving.

A stream of new customers dropped into the Weeds Glass & Gifts store on Bank Street Monday to purchase dried weed, cannabis cookies, brownies and oils.

They flashed membership cards from the seven Ottawa marijuana dispensaries closed in police raids last week, said Weeds manager Kristina Simpson.

The customers were politely turned away unless they could prove they need marijuana for medical reasons, said Simpson.

Police investigators found the seven raided shops did not restrict their sales to medical patients, said Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau. He said he hopes the raids send a warning to all dispensaries.

The product would be a long way off, but the company says edibles have become popular business in places like Colorado where pot is legal.

Could you one day be adding a half dozen bud bagels and some “herb” cream cheese to your Kettleman’s order?

“We are interested in your thoughts on this for bagels,” reads a post added to the local business's Facebook page on Friday, linking to an article about cannabis being declared kosher. “Please let us know if you'd buy bagels if this became legal.”

“We are interested in what people's thoughts are,” continues the message. “Many businesses in Colorado are incorporating marijuana into some of their food and drink. We just wanted to see people's opinions. We are a long way from deciding if we would ever use it.”

Kristina Simpson says she feels lucky to have landed a job at a Bank Street store where the staff feel like family and customers are grateful for the products she sells.

But when she steps behind the counter at Weeds Glass & Gifts each morning, she brushes aside a nagging fear: Will this be the day police arrive to arrest her for drug trafficking?

It’s an occupational hazard for employees at the city’s 17 illegal marijuana dispensaries.

These days there’s more than the sweet smell of cannabis wafting through the air at the pot shops. There’s chatter about whether Ottawa police will raid the dispensaries, and if so, which ones.