The government’s proposed pot packaging rules don’t give cannabis companies enough freedom to market their products, handicapping them against black-market competition, one business professor says.

Big tobacco, meanwhile, is crying foul over the draft guidelines, saying marijuana producers are being given more leeway than their cigarette-making counterparts.

With recreational marijuana to be legalized on Oct. 17, critics are taking aim at Health Canada’s initial guidelines for packaging and branding marijuana. The rules require cannabis companies to use plain packaging, similar to cigarettes, that displays a health warning on a bright yellow background.

West Vancouver residents are being encouraged to speak out on greening out.

Cannabis regulations for the District of West Vancouver are heading to a public hearing, following a unanimous vote from council June 25.

At the meeting, council got a first look at district staff’s proposed cannabis regulations bylaw, which seeks to prohibit the production and sale of retail cannabis in West Vancouver.

The sale and consumption of recreational marijuana becomes legal across Canada on Oct. 17. But while federal legislation will make non-medical cannabis legal across the country, it is being left up to provincial and local governments to determine how it will be distributed and retailed.

With the highly anticipated legalization of cannabis set to take place October 17, investors seeking cannabis producers now have a wider range of publicly traded options on the TSX. From newly launched and relatively small operations to juggernauts such as Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC), investors who are betting that the cannabis industry will explode in Canada and worldwide are driving up prices for cannabis producers, many of which have hit fresh all-time highs within the past two weeks. The phenomena that has seen valuations increase across the board is a curious one, as not every marijuana grower will be able to attain…

Second Cup Ltd. is discovering that the stock market’s madness for marijuana comes with a downside.

The Mississauga-based coffee chain, which has suffered from declining sales in recent years as it battles multinational behemoths such as Starbucks Corp. and McDonalds Corp., struck a deal in the spring to convert some of its cafés into cannabis dispensaries.

Its stock price quickly shot up to their highest point in years. Within days, the shares had gone up nearly 50 per cent, to more than $4, a level they had not seen since early 2015.

And since then? Investors have lost all of those gains, amid a volatile ride for the entire cannabis sector as the country edges toward legalization of the drug in October.

A couple of years ago, a slick group of strangers showed up in the office of Edward Garcia, mayor of this sleepy town in a lush agricultural valley in central Colombia. They wanted to talk about marijuana.

Deep inside Simon Fraser University's halls, in the Morris J Wosk Centre for dialogue, a lecture was taking place.

There were students filling the seats, an eclectic crowd of young and old from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. At the front, an instructor was teaching using a PowerPoint presentation.

Standard university fare.

Except in front of the teacher, lining a table, were several marijuana products, from dry bud, to balms, to concentrated tinctures. 

It was a two-day recreational retail course for the so-called "budtenders" of the future.

Marijuana retailers in Squamish are thrilled that their product will soon be legal, though some details around how it will roll out depend on feedback from a public hearing on the subject.

The District will hold a hearing on proposed changes to bylaws around marijuana production and sales on July 17 – three months to the day before pot becomes legal across Canada.

This is part of a nationwide process sparked by the federal government's announcement that marijuana will become legal in Canada as of Oct. 17. The provincial government has outlined the processes for distribution, which fall along lines similar to alcohol sales. But it is for local governments to determine appropriate locations for pot shops, as well as licensing and business operations regulations.

Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: NINE) ("Delta 9" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the planned locations for its first cannabis retail stores. Delta 9 intends to open two stores in Winnipeg, one in Brandon and one in Thompson before the end of the year. At least one of the Winnipeg stores is expected to be open on October 17, 2018, which is the date that has been announced as the first day for legal retail sales of cannabis. The Company's online sales portal will also be operating on that date.

Anticipating the legalization of cannabis later this year, some of the country’s major life insurance companies are updating their policies to better serve customers.

Recreational use of cannabis is set to be legalized on October 17; and the announcement has sent the non-life insurance industry scrambling to ensure that the emerging marketplace has proper coverage.

Brokers looking to place product liability policies for cannabis vendors might face an uphill battle.

The cannabis industry “desperately” needs access to the same coverage that insurers already provide to non-cannabis businesses in agriculture pharmaceutical or manufacturing, said Wendy Sinclair, managing director of Jones Brown Inc., in a recent interview.

A bill making it legal for Canadians to possess and share up to 30 grams of dried cannabis for recreational use was passed into law June 21. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has reportedly said recreational marijuana will be legal in Canada, effective Oct. 17, 2018.