As recently as last month, Italian cancer patients have been met with a supply shortage in the domestic medical marijuana market. As of mid-June, Italy only had a single medical marijuana facility, which is controlled by the military. The limited supply problem resulted in patients seeking their products from the black market, which highlighted the critical need for Italy expanded legal supply.

A Canadian company is the first marijuana business to complete an initial public offering on a major U.S. stock exchange, raising $153 million to expand its operations as Canada prepares to legalize the drug nationwide.

British Columbia-based Tilray Inc.'s shares began trading Thursday on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Initially priced at $17, the stock quickly jumped, closing for the day at $22.55 - up about one-third.

Tilray isn't the first pot company to trade on a major American stock exchange, but it is the first to do so with an IPO, a step that could boost credibility and confidence in the industry, said John Kagia, an analyst with the marijuana market research firm New Frontier Data.

Three illegal medical marijuana dispensaries have closed down after intervention from the Fredericton Police.

On July 4, the force issued notices of enforcement to HBB Medical, King Cana and Buddy's medical marijuana dispensaries ordering them to close within 14 business days.

The decision to seek the closure of the dispensaries this way — by giving them time to close or possible risk a raid —  was made with police staffing in mind, said Insp, Kimberly Quartermain of the Fredericton police.

She said the force has been dealing with other criminal matters that require a lot of officers, and the force wanted to make sure it wasn't spread too thin.

Gerald Major goes out on the back balcony of his condo several times a day, leaning against the wall and smoking or vaping medicinal cannabis to ease the pain and other symptoms of severe arthritis.

But the looming legalization of recreational marijuana may put his daily ritual in jeopardy, as condominium corporations and apartment buildings across the country scramble to enact rules that would ban pot smoking inside units, on balconies and in common areas used by residents.

"I don't use inside my dwelling, I have a seven-year-old. I don't think it's healthy, nor is it necessary," said Major, 46, who has had eight surgeries in the last eight years related to ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, which he began developing at age 14.

Heading into the third quarter of 2018, Canadian advisors are most bullish on marijuana stocks, reveals the latest advisor sentiment survey from Horizons ETFs.

The marijuana sector, as represented by the North American Marijuana Index, has the highest level of bullish sentiment in the survey, with 58% of advisors expecting marijuana stocks to deliver positive returns in Q3.

The index was up 5.78% from last quarter, with much of that performance coming from the announcement that recreational marijuana will become legal in Canada on Oct. 17.

“Since this sector is such a news-driven space, many advisors may be expecting the sector to get a big bump in interest as we near the big day,” says Steve Hawkins, president and co-CEO of Horizons ETFs, in a release.

VANCOUVER – Should Canada’s marijuana industry be eligible for federal agriculture funding?

That’s one of the questions Canada’s agriculture ministers are expected to tackle when they meet in Vancouver this week for their annual federal-provincial-territorial meeting, which comes three months before the consumption and possession of cannabis is set to become legal in this country.

C-45, the Liberal government’s Cannabis Act, received Royal Assent from Parliament at the end of June. As of October 17, the consumption and possession of marijuana will be legal, making Canada the second county in the world to legalize the drug.

“We will certainly be having discussion this week on that very issue,” Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay told reporters Wednesday.

A Saskatoon company is betting Saskatchewan cannabis users will prefer homegrown.

It's not an idle gamble.

The walls and roof are already up on the Bold Growth Inc. building north of the airport. The company is hiring workers and checking its way through a Health Canada application to become a licensed grower.

"There's definitely some risk to it," said Bold Growth's chief operating officer Spencer Veikle.

"Your final licence isn't granted until your building is finished. But there's multiple steps in the licensing process, and we passed most of those quickly and effectively."

The company is not going into the project blind. It's working with an Ontario company called Cannabis Compliance Inc. to negotiate the Health Canada application.

While many consumers and companies are excited that marijuana sales will be legal in October, it may not all be good news. With legalization paving the way for more people consuming pot, it could create big problems both in Canada and south of the border. Many lessons can be learned from Colorado In an interview with BNN Bloomberg recently, Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado, noted many downsides that have come with being the first U.S. state to legalize pot, one of which was that the state became a destination for those looking to smoke and grow pot. This has even attracted…

Now that we have a firm date for the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada, individuals and businesses alike are scrambling to get answers to the many questions surrounding what that will actually look like from a commercial and individual standpoint. Until now, the idea of legal cannabis was still something that somehow seemed off in the future, a possibility even. But that is no longer the case.