This month the federal government sent the first cannabis excise tax payments to the provinces. But almost none of the amounts was disclosed. That’s likely because the cheques were smaller than officials had expected. But perhaps it’s also because medical cannabis clients think the taxes are unfair.

British Columbia is the only province so far to disclose its excise tax revenues: $1.3 million for October to December 2018. It had expected $50 million total this fiscal year, but now will be lucky to get $3 million. Other provinces haven’t disclosed their receipts. Manitoba didn’t even mention cannabis revenues in last week’s budget.

We can, however, estimate pot tax revenues using other data. First consider the federal government’s share.

Sudbury will become home to two new pot shops in the coming months, and city council is trying to determine how to address the increased presence of marijuana on the streets.

Earlier this year, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced the Nickel City would become home to a shop operated by Anton Lucic, which will open near Milestones restaurant, as well as a second outlet, operated by Saturninus Partners. A location for this retail shop has yet to be confirmed.

A growing list of Democratic presidential contenders want the U.S. government to legalize marijuana, reflecting a nationwide shift as more Americans look favourably on cannabis.

Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the "smart thing to do," says California Sen. Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor whose home state is the nation's largest legal pot shop. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent legalization advocate on Capitol Hill, says the war on drugs has been a "war on people."

Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who appears poised to join the 2020 Democratic field, has written a book arguing marijuana legalization would hobble drug cartels. In an email to supporters this week, he called again to end the federal prohibition on marijuana.

The legalization of cannabis has changed laws, but impaired is still impaired, say Atlantic Police Academy instructors. “It always used to be that it was a victimless crime, but that’s not the case. You can put yourself and others in danger,” said the Insp. Gord Campbell, referring to getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while impaired.

Campbell is one of the instructors at the Slemon Park-based training facility. He teaches use of force, firearms and Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) curriculum.

Cannabis became legal in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018.

Now, not only is there a federal act for the control of marijuana, police academy students learn about the individual provincial acts which regulate marijuana.

B.C.'s first round of tax revenue from legal cannabis is lower than the estimates written into the 2018/2019 budget.

The province had estimated it would receive $200 million over three years. But provincial Finance Minister Carole James told reporters Wednesday the province has now built in $68 million over three years.

"We can make adjustments to that each year as we see the progress of the stores opening," she said.

James said the discrepancy was due to delays in legalization from the federal government and municipal elections across B.C. which put new permits for pot shops on hold.

"We've seen a delay in opening of stores and that obviously impacts the revenue," she said.

Ontario’s lottery system to dole out the first wave of cannabis shop licences is producing some unusual results across the province.

Canada’s most populated province will allow privately owned retail marijuana sales starting April 1, after the Ford government abandoned a plan for government-run stores last summer.

Cannabis stocks extended their early losses Wednesday, as investors weighed the surprise news that the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has resigned, leaving the fate of the cannabis ingredient CBD in regulatory limbo.

Before the twentieth century, cannabis was used as a sort of medicine to treat asthma, coughs, migraines, and insomnia. However, due to the psychoactive effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or the THC-derivative, cannabis became illegal and was removed from the list of registered medicines.

Now, cannabis is rapidly emerging around the globe as countries begin to reverse the laws and legalize its medicinal use again. While most countries are exploring opportunities within the medical cannabis sector, the proliferation of recreational cannabis is rapidly spreading throughout the western hemisphere of the world.

Pre-October, with the country moving toward cannabis legalization, police and lawyers geared up for what was expected to be a rash of impaired driving offences related to the drug.

Instead — in Regina, at least — crickets.

“I don’t have numbers, but I’ll use the word ‘low,’ ” Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray said recently at a Board of Police Commissioners meeting when questioned by reporters on the issue. “We have not laid a lot of (cannabis-related) impaired driving charges. In fact, I don’t think we’ve laid any impaired driving charges as a result of cannabis.”

City police spokesman Les Parker confirmed it, stating the current numbers for cannabis-related impaired driving are “zero, unless other charges are mislabeled.”

The mayor of Kamloops, British Columbia says rules around cannabis today may be different tomorrow, after the city recently rejected two different applications for legal pot shops.

Ken Christian says there is still another shoe to drop on the legal cannabis front when edibles are legalized later this year.

He believes that will alter the dynamic and with such a new industry, he thinks there will be a natural re-evaluation of the rules.

Christian says he thinks the entire retail cannabis landscape will be reassessed once legislators have a year or two of legalization under their belts.

He says the city is probably over-served with cannabis stores right now.