Canada is now just 13 months away from making marijuana a legal drug for recreational consumption. What’s critical to the Trudeau government at this point is to ensure that come July 1st 2018, there will be a sufficient supply of weed on the legal market to meet the sudden rush of demand that’s expected.

So it was not altogether surprising when Health Canada recently announced that it would speed up the licensing process for the production of legal medical weed, in an attempt to ramp up cultivation ahead of next July.

HelloMD - one of the nation's largest communities of medical cannabis patients – announced today that it had received an investment of $200,000 from SeedInvest's 'Selections Fund'. The money will count towards the amount HelloMD is targeting to raise from the crowdfunding platform, as well as from accredited investors in its funding round.

HelloMD launched its crowdfunding offering on the SeedInvest platform last month and has already received over $900,000 from over 600 investors

One Seattle-based businesswoman is turning heads with rolling papers and stash bags that are red carpet-ready.

Andre Shavers was sentenced to five years on felony probation after authorities burst into the house where he was living in one of Oakland's most heavily policed neighborhoods and found a quarter ounce of marijuana.

After the 2007 raid, Shavers couldn't leave the state without permission. He was subject to police searches at any time. He walked to the corner store one night for maple syrup and came back in a police car. Officers wanted to search his home again.

All the while, cannabis storefronts flourished elsewhere in a state where medical marijuana was authorized in 1996.

Detroit's crackdown on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries has shuttered 167 shops since the city's regulation efforts began last year, and dozens more are expected.

Detroit city attorney Melvin Butch Hollowell said that 283 dispensaries were identified last year, all of which were operating illegally.

"At the time I sent a letter to each one of them indicating that unless you have a fully licensed facility, you are operating at your own risk," he said.

An additional 51 shops are in the pipeline to be closed in the coming weeks, Hollowell said. That would bring the closures up to 218, a step closer to the  goal laid out by officials to only have 50 dispensaries in the city.

The legal weed business is booming in Colorado, and the state has finalized plans to spend its pot tax windfall on health programs in public schools, housing for at-risk populations, and a new treatment program to combat the opioid crisis.

Medical and now recreational marijuana is legal in Nevada. Many businesses in the state are grappling with drafting drug policies to ensure workplace safety. Diana Albiniano is a Reno based human resources consultant with Solutions At Work. She helps employers customize policies that work for their type of industry and explains that workplace drug policies should address the specific needs of an industry.

“Do you have heavy equipment, do you have manufacturing, do you have a lot of safety concerns? So your policy is going to be a lot different than a policy for a company that just has workers in an office,” Albiniano says.

Marijuana companies may have limited abilities to advertise after federal legislation is passed.

The Tragically Hip has announced a partnership with medical marijuana company Newstrike.

"After much discussion and assessment on our part, we've decided that this company — and the many creative people in it — are a perfect fit for The Hip," said the band in a news release.

The company says the band members are "significant investors" in Newstrike, which will begin trading on the TSX in June under the new symbol HIP. The band will also play a role in the company's branding efforts.

The Initial Objective of the Collaboration is the Introduction of OWC's Active Cannabinoid-Based Topical Psoriasis Cream to the German Market.

OWC Pharmaceutical Research Corp. (OTC: OWCP) and mediq Innovation Partners (mediq) are pleased to announce an agreement for the introduction of OWCP's active cannabinoid-based topical psoriasis cream to the German market.

Frankfurt, Germany-based mediq has extensive experience, knowledge and a successful track record in enabling Israel-based companies to penetrate the European markets. mediq's objectives for OWCP will consist of both scientific collaboration and most importantly the development of a commercial market for OWCP's proprietary, active cannabinoid-based topical psoriasis cream in Germany.

Prohibition Gold's line of powdered, THC dissolvables take the mess out of marijuana edibles while offering a squeaky clean alternative to weed culture. But in sweeping away the realities of criminalized cannabis, do they go too far?

A woman holds a martini glass between her fingertips, her skin aglow in the camera's flash, the edges of her evening dress and matching jet-black hair lost against the dim, cocktail-lounge light.

"Devilishly Good Fun," reads the distressed saloon lettering to her left—words made official with a wax seal of a devil wielding a pitchfork.