The sands of time are passing quickly. In a mere two days, adults in Canada will be free to legally purchase recreational cannabis in licensed dispensaries and on websites in provinces where online sales are permitted. Though legalization has been a long time coming, the expectation is that it'll result in billions of dollars in added annual sales.

 In 72 hours it will be legal for adults in Canada to purchase, possess, or grow recreational cannabis, with some considerable caveats depending on which part of the country you live in.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17 the country will mark a historic moment: the end of the criminal prohibition on marijuana.

It also begins the 12-month march to edibles joining the list of permissible pot products -- the regulations for which Blair said are already in the works.

With the countdown to legal cannabis now measurable in hours, many retailers, police forces, and the general public are still curious and uncertain about how the rollout will go.

While B.C. may be known for its production of bud, Nova Scotians lead the country in cannabis consumption among people 15 and older, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.

Smoking recreational cannabis will be legal in Canada for those 19 and older starting Wednesday though edible cannabis products will remain illegal for the time being.

According to the third-quarter findings for Statistics Canada's national cannabis survey, 23 per cent of Nova Scotia residents reported using cannabis, which was followed by B.C. at 20 per cent.

For the country as a whole, it worked out to 15 per cent of residents — or 4.6 million people.

Stefania Zilinskas knows she’s made an “incredibly risky” move.

The 34-year-old left her job as a securities lawyer at Blakes, Cassels and Graydon LLP in July after a five year tenure and a path to partnership. But Zilinskas says she gave up the chance to climb to the top of one of Canada’s biggest law firms to take a role in the fast-moving cannabis industry, joining Tidal Royalty Corp., a Toronto-based marijuana financing company, as its general counsel. “I was very happy at [Blakes]. I could have seen myself there for years and years,” Zilinskas said in a phone interview with BNN Bloomberg. “It’s really exciting to be in a completely new industry… I believe in the legalization of cannabis and the cultural and legal shifts that need to go along with that.”

When Canada launches its fully recreational marijuana market in the next week, the cannabis industry is expected to not only serve those die-hard customers who have dedicated years, maybe even decades to the black market but also those curious people new to cannabis. It is those neophytes on the scene, those with little concern for getting stoned out of their gourds, that could create an overwhelming demand in low-THC pot products, according to an insightful report from Deloitte.

Walmart Inc.’s Canadian arm has been investigating the possibility of selling cannabis-based products but doesn’t intend to get into the much-hyped business yet.

“As we would for any new industry, Walmart Canada has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue, but we do not have plans to carry CBD products at this time,” spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said in an email, referring to cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants.

Interest in CBD has been booming as Canada prepares to legalize recreational marijuana next week and several large alcohol and consumer products companies have indicated they’re studying CBD’s commercial possibilities.

With legalization of recreational marijuana only days away, a leading Ontario doctor is backtracking after she voiced uncertainty around its safety.

Dr. Nadia Alam, president of the Ontario Medical Association, apologized Saturday after suggesting that smoking a joint could act as a gateway to harder drugs in a Thursday CBC Radio interview. 

"What I would say is that I misspoke, I misunderstood," she told CBC Toronto Saturday. Alam woke up to a flurry of backlash on social media Saturday morning after a London Morning segment on her stance regarding the side-effects of recreational marijuana aired Thursday.

As medical marijuana becomes increasingly popular among elderly Canadians, a  group of physicians are taking steps to make sure seniors get the advice they need about cannabis.

The Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health has started developing guidelines to help seniors that are curious about medical marijuana. The guidelines aim to answer questions seniors might have like how cannabis will interact with other medications and common side effects of medical marijuana (including increased heart rate).

Just upriver from downtown Montreal, the Kahnawake First Nation council office takes pride of place in the reserve’s modest skyline, along with a youth centre and a pair of churches.

Soon, however, these old edifices may all be dwarfed by a sprawling, state-of-the-art greenhouse sprouting with cannabis plants and buzzing with cultivators of Canada’s newest legal commodity.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake has signed a non-binding agreement with Canopy Growth Corp. The potential deal would see the First Nation host a 4,650-square-metre production facility, plus a processing and packaging space nearly half that size, in partnership with Canada’s largest cannabis company.

Having previously partnered with the University of Calgary, Sundial Growers has now entered a three-year memorandum of understanding with the University of Saskatchewan.

“Sundial, from day one, has been committed to becoming a leader in proving out medical cannabis as an option for doctors to prescribe, so we have moved forward in a partnership with both (universities) to pursue that,” said Geoff Thompson, president of Sundial.