Eight businesses in Edmonton have been fined $48,000 for selling cannabis products illegally in the city, police said Thursday.

“A legal market is a safer market, and the Edmonton Police Service will continue to crack down on the illegal market,” said Const. Dexx Williams in a news release.

Police received a tip that several businesses were selling cannabis products without the required municipal and provincial licences in early 2019. Approximately $1,500 in cannabis products that were being sold illegally from three separate businesses were seized on Aug. 21 after a joint operation by the city and the Edmonton police.

An Ontario cannabis producer is laying off about 180 people following repeated problems with both its product and how it has been produced.

“We have made the extremely difficult decision to restructure our workforce to reflect the current requirements of our business,” said Robert Marcovitch, interim head of CannTrust Holdings.

The layoffs amount to about 20 per cent of the company's workforce.

Last month, CannTrust disclosed the Ontario government's cannabis retailer said it would return almost $3 million worth of cannabis to the company after determining that some of the products didn't live up to the terms of its supply agreement.

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Portugal’s California-like weather has seen a third Canadian company look to establish a cannabis cultivation footprint in the country.

First it was Tilray, then it was Aurora and now The Flowr Corporation is set to grow cannabis in the country. Flowr has announced plans to acquire the remaining 80% stake in Portuguese firm Holigen which has established a huge cannabis operation in Aljustrel, about 100 miles south east of the capital Lisbon.

Legal marijuana projects as one of the fastest-growing industries in the world over the next decade. Regardless of which Wall Street forecast you favor, growth prospects suggest a healthy double-digit compound annual growth rate for the industry through 2030, and hopefully plenty of opportunity for investors to make some green while cannabis companies sell the green.

All good business plans require a financial projection. Creating a financial projection is both an art and science. A financial projection will include projected sales, budgeted expenses, a balance sheet, cash flow, and sources and uses of funds. Also, a financial projection will help determine how much funding will be needed and the projected return on the investment (ROI).

The marijuana stock market has seen some massive ups and downs over the past few months. This is of course due to the infancy of the market as a whole which we have seen since its inception. The volatility of the marijuana stock market, however, gives two advantages. For one, it allows investors the ability to find cannabis stocks that are below the value that analysts say they should be at. 

Things should get rolling at Windsor’s first legal pot shop by the start of November.

Kyriakos (Kirk) Anastasiadis said Wednesday his new joint at 545 Ouellette Ave. should be past regulatory hurdles, renovated, stocked and open by Nov. 1.

“I’m just excited to get working on this and bringing some good business and positivity to the downtown Windsor core,” said Anastasiadis, 30, who owns several bars and restaurants in London.

Anastasiadis was one of 42 applicants selected in the most recent Ontario lottery last month to receive a retail pot store licence, assuming all the regulatory requirements are met.

A dozen of those applicants have since been disqualified for failing to submit required documents in time. Another one withdrew the application.

As Europe swooned under record-breaking heat this summer, the cannabis industry also found itself in a rather existential hot seat.

The complete meltdown at CannTrust has yet to reach a conclusion. Yes, a few  jobs have been lost. However, a greater question is in the room as criminal investigatory and financial regulatory agencies on both sides of the US-Canada border (plus in Europe) are getting involved.

Acres Agricultural Canada receives 300-acre cannabis license approval from the government of St. Vincent & the Grenadines.