Canada’s looming legalization of cannabis is creating a conundrum for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

Late last year, the province announced a zero-tolerance approach to impaired driving for commercial license holders. Anyone behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle cannot have drugs or alcohol in their system, if they want to keep their license.

The problem is that cannabis impairment cannot be measured the same as impairment from alcohol. Joe Lynch, a professional engineer with the MTO, explained the provincial approach to determining impairment, during Truck World, held in Mississauga, Ont.

Cannvas MedTech Inc. ("Cannvas MedTech" or the "Company"), a leading business technology company within the cannabis space, is pleased to announce its lead sponsorship role at the upcoming Medical Cannabis Week in Toronto. This inaugural event brings together the thought leaders in the Canadian medical cannabis sector and is presented by Business of Cannabis in partnership with Cannvas MedTech, WeedMD, Ample Organics, TechTO, HealthTO, SheCann, Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP, RNMKR PR, Salesforce, Emblem and other leading industry partners.

Sault College’s plan to deal with legalized marijuana on campus remains in the budding stage, says the school’s director of student services.

Matt Trainor says the post-secondary institution has, for the last six to eight months, looked for provincial direction for forging firm local policy, as well as explored “whatever we can create” to ensure students use pot “safely” in accordance to Sault College policy.
“It’s a relevant issue for us, that’s for sure,” Trainor told The Sault Star in an interview.

Sault College has a smoking and tobacco use policy, with designated smoking areas pegged.

Ontario’s chiefs of police are again sounding alarm bells about the impending legalization of recreational cannabis, saying federal funding for police operations may not go far enough to cover increased costs.

At a news conference held by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police in Toronto on Tuesday, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Supt. Chuck Cox said it’s fair to assume based on other jurisdictions’ experiences that drug-impaired driving will go up once recreational pot is legal, and police will need to train more officers to detect drug impairment.

That, Cox said, can be costly.

A recent report from CFRA Research projected that alcohol companies could be squeezed by legal cannabis in the coming years. Analyst Joe Agnese made the projection in a note published on March 5. “Due to shared usage occasions, we view the legalization of cannabis as a threat to alcohol industry consumption growth.”

Agnese pointed to research from the University of Connecticut and George State University that found that monthly alcohol sales dropped 13% in states that legalized medical cannabis. In the report, he predicts that Canada will make a very good test case.

Several former executives from a Carleton Place cannabis firm are launching a new venture and hope to construct a 100,000-square-foot facility in west Ottawa and start cultivating marijuana by May 2019.

NordikLeaf CEO James Mackenzie says the firm has raised $1 million to date and is looking to raise a total of $25 million from high-net-worth individuals to launch the project. Additionally, the company has an agreement with “a large Canadian construction company” based in Ottawa that will help finance the building of the facility.

Whether it’s a delicious terpene-rich IPA or a THC-oil Belgian ale boasting no hangover, cannabis-friendly states like California and Colorado are leading the way when it comes to weed-infused beer.

It’s a Canadian company, however, that plans on launching the world’s first beer brewed entirely from the cannabis plant.

“First people thought we were crazy. Then they asked us how we were doing it,” Dooma Wendschuh told the Straight by phone. Wendschuh is the CEO of Province Brands of Canada (PBC), a premium beer and spirits company recently awarded with $300,000 in funding from the Government of Ontario.

A local municipal councillor wants Chatham-Kent to be “ahead of the curve” when it comes to preparing for the legalization of marijuana.

Chatham-Kent Councillor Doug Sulman’s motion for staff to prepare a report on its plan to handle the coming legalization of marijuana was approved unanimously at Monday night’s council meeting.

Topics to be addressed in the report include:

Aurora Cannabis Inc. has inked a friendly deal to acquire MedReleaf Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $3.2 billion, creating a company capable of producing more than 570,000 kilograms of marijuana per year.

Current shareholders of Aurora - one of the Canadian cannabis industry's major consolidators - would own 61 per cent of the combined company and MedReleaf shareholders would own about 39 per cent.

“Our complementary assets, strategic synergies, and strong market positioning will provide us with critical mass and an excellent product portfolio in preparation for the adult consumer use market in Canada,” Aurora chief executive Terry Booth said in a statement.

CO2 GRO Inc. (“GROW”) (TSX-V:GROW) is pleased to announce progress to having its patented CO2 Foliar Spray technology approved for use by Canadian Licensed Producer (“LP”) cannabis companies. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency StR Decision was that GROW’s dissolved CO2 foliar spray water on cannabis in greenhouses and/or outdoors does not meet the definition of a pesticide as per Section 2 of the Pest Control Products Act.