CREEMORE, ONT.—One really couldn’t script a more “of the moment” Canadian story: The Tragically Hip has quietly re-emerged into the public eye for the first time since frontman Gord Downie’s death from brain cancer last October, and broken an almost-total radio silence imposed for the past three years to talk about … marijuana.

Female entrepreneurs are carving out their own space in the male-heavy cannabis industry — and they're doing it with style.

Until now, the stoner culture aesthetic has looked more like Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke or Seth Rogen's Pineapple Express than something you'd find in lifestyle reads like Goop or Vogue.

But with legalization, pot is going mainstream. New fashion-forward accessories like sleek vape pens and hand-crafted ceramic stash jars are being created to appeal specifically to women, who represent a fast-growing market for weed.

Cannabis legalization may be just three months away in Canada but First Nations in Chilliwack aren’t waiting.

A second marijuana dispensary on a local reserve opened its doors this week with a grand opening set for July 11, with a third storefront on the way.

Indigenous Bloom opened its doors to customers on the Kwaw-Kwaw-Apilt reserve on Ashwell Road on July 5 while workers were still on site putting the finishing touches on the medical marijuana dispensary.

And Indigenous Bloom Corp, which is based in Kelowna, is just getting started with some big corporate experience and First Nations leadership on its board.

A limit on pot shops in Jasper?

Put it in the air.

A working group of mostly law enforcement officials and Parks Canada managers has recommended allowing the market to decide how many marijuana dispensaries can open in October.

The Cannabis Working Group’s final report to Jasper town council is included with the July 10 council agenda and is available on the town’s website.

Their recommendations appear to follow closely with the responses of a survey that attracted the most responses of any such exercise by the town.

That includes what floors they should be allowed on. Residents said top, street level and basement, and that’s what the group says council should get behind. Parks Canada has the final word.

A Southwestern Ontario pot producer has signed a contract to supply Shoppers Drug Mart, becoming the smallest cannabis company to strike a partnership with the pharmacy chain.

WeedMD, an Aylmer-based medical marijuana producer that recently expanded into Strathroy, joins the ranks of Aphria, Tilray and MedReleaf – some of Canada’s largest growers – to land a high-profile supply deal with Shoppers.

“The bulk of the other producers that signed on with Shoppers are much larger than WeedMD,” chief financial officer Keith Merker said Friday.

“What it really provides is that good housekeeping stamp of approval on our business, on our quality assurance processes and, ultimately, on the quality and consistency.”

Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC) and Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB) are the two top frontrunners in the hot Canadian marijuana scene. While both names are an effective means to capitalize from the Canadian “green rush,” there are some significant differences between each company’s respective strategy that investors ought to know about before pulling the trigger on either one of the two pot giants. Aurora Cannabis stock Consolidation within the Canadian marijuana scene is inevitable. Most pundits believe that a majority of the M&A activities will be conducted over the next three years or so, but Aurora’s management team isn’t willing…

Even when weed is finally legal in Canada, it won’t be a free-for-all. In fact, there are still a number of ways you can get busted for weed-related offenses. Trying to buy weed if you’re a minor is one of the most obvious infractions. If you’re underage, you will not be allowed to buy weed—unless, of course, the government hires you to buy weed. With a Canadian province hiring underage marijuana shoppers for sting operations, that’s exactly what may happen in some parts of the country.

FREDERICTON – Canopy Growth, one of the largest cannabis producers in the world, is investing $40 million in a new production facility in Fredericton. The Smiths Falls, Ont.–headquartered company will also create up to 136 jobs over the next six years.

Canopy Growth will be looking to fill various positions, including lab supervisors, technologists, growers, post-harvest crews, quality assurance experts, maintenance crews, and shipping and on-site retail staff.

So far, the company has hired five people and will host a job fair soon.

A proliferation of pot store owners are getting ready for legalization in B.C., but they will have to wait a while to see if they can get a provincial licence.

The attorney general’s ministry posted details Thursday of its requirements for cannabis retail licences, to be issued to qualifying stores in preparation for the federal legalization of recreational marijuana sales in October.

B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch has been renamed the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch in preparation for the new era, where Canada becomes the first industrialized country to make the product legal for adult use.

If you believe some of the rhetoric surrounding Canada’s cannabis space, today’s pharmaceutical companies should feel threatened by the rise of medical marijuana and its ability to treat any number of ailments.

Don’t believe the hype, says Eden Rahim of Next Edge Capital, who argues that investors would be better off treating companies like Canopy Growth and Aurora Cannabis as glorified commodity producers rather than biotech specialists.

Recreational pot may be just a few months away here in Canada but many in the industry are pointing to medical cannabis as the truly international story. Along with a growing number of US states, countries like Germany, Italy and Denmark have in recent years made the move to legalize medical pot.