Parents and adults spend a lot of time worrying about the influence of friends and peers when it comes to teen substance use – drinking alcohol, binge drinking, marijuana use and other illicit drugs. Is it all about an adolescent’s environment, their friends, peers and family, or is there a genetic component that drives their desire for risk taking and novelty? Teen substance use typically begins in early adolescence and increases linearly – both in terms of prevalence rates and frequency of use – until late adolescence, when a majority of teens report prior use of alcohol or illicit drugs. Conventional wisdom would argue that part of the reason substance use increases in teens is due to their experiences outside of the home, such as their friends and peers.

Located on Main Street, Compass Cannabis Clinic officially opened its doors to the public on Friday (April 20), inviting them to learn about medical marijuana and how it might help them with various health issues from anxiety to chronic pain.

The clinic will have a doctor on site every two weeks starting April 27, however no marijuana will be sold on site until after it becomes legal and the company is licensed to sell the product by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC).

“Basically we provide people a service where they can come see our doctor to get educated about medical cannabis,” said Brad Murphy, who co-owns the business with his partner Michelle Craig located at 713 Main St.

In a much friendlier regulatory environment than the United States, new Canadian cannabis companies are already going international in a big way.

North of the border, cannabis was legalized nationwide in Canada, and the legal sale of cannabis is imminent, while in the United States a patchwork of state-level marijuana laws and a strongly anti-cannabis attorney general complicate business.

With an expected $22.6 billion market projected in Canada alone, Canadian companies already have a significant head start, and that could be just the beginning as they take their operations abroad.

CannTrust Holdings Inc. (TSX:TRST) is a licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis in Canada under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). The Company started production of medicinal cannabis at its hydroponic facility situated in Vaughan, Ontario and received its cannabis sales license from Health Canada on February 9, 2015.

CannTrust Holdings has a market capitalization of $642 million on the TSX. TRST trades at 3.0x EV/Sales for 2019 and 8.0x EV/EBITD for 2019 compared to Canadian-based peers, which trade at a median of 2.7x and 10.1x, respectively. The average analyst price target is $14.43.

Cannara Biotech to operate the largest indoor medical cannabis production facility in the province.

Cannara Biotech ("Cannara" or the "Company") announced a signed partnership with Ontario-based FV Pharma Inc ("FV Pharma") to create the largest indoor medical cannabis growing operation in Canada. Together, the companies have a combined floor space of over 1.245 million square feet of indoor growing capacity.

Cannara Biotech's newly purchased 625,000 square foot property will be the largest indoor medical cannabis production facility in Quebec. Ideally located 45 minutes from downtown Montreal, the site will leverage the province's low electricity cost to produce superior indoor quality medical cannabis at a significantly lower cost per gram.

The medical marijuana system in Canada makes it so that any patient anywhere in the country always has easy access to the drugs they need, but what about those same patients in the USA?

If you’re a medical marijuana patient in Canada, you probably have little to no trouble accessing your medication.

In Canada, patients order their medical marijuana via online services and usually LP’s websites.

In the US, the situation is a bit different since medical marijuana is only legal in some states, and only to a certain extent in others.

The difference in illnesses that fall under the category of “treatable with medical marijuana” is significant from one state to another.

The executive director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr James Hosepdales, is urging regional countries to “proceed with an abundance of caution” when it come to the decriminalisation of marijuana.

Hospedales, who spoke on a government radio programme “Working for you”, said there is much discussion on the decriminalisation issue and that there have been several times in history where populations and societies have gone very liberal with substances of abuse.

“The Americans are in the middle of a big opioid crisis and some many decades ago they had a huge problem with addiction and especially among white women,” he said.

A doctor conducting a medical marijuana therapy program with area seniors says the stigma surrounding its use is loosening up.

Dr. Blake Pearson is working with residents at Trillium Villa to see if improvements can be made to their quality of life.

He told members of Sarnia’s Seaway Kiwanis club Tuesday that physicians are really starting to see the benefits with patients.

“It’s not the answer to everything, but there have been a few cases where there have been really good results in lowering their opioid doses and anti-psychotics with cannabis oils,” says Pearson.

However, Dr. Pearson is cautiously optimistic about recreational use.

The regulatory body that oversees medical cannabis in Canada says it’s open to the idea of distributing cannabis directly to patients through pharmacies, a move that could give the country’s MMJ market a boost by improving access.

But such a change would require buy-in from other key players beyond Health Canada.

The only legal channel patients have to purchase medical marijuana in Canada is directly from licensed producers/sellers via registered mail.

Canada’s sales regimen puts it at odds with other countries that regulate medical cannabis at a federal level and distribute MMJ directly via pharmacies.

While some industry executives hope for the requisite regulatory change as soon as this year, analysts say a more likely scenario would be 2019 or 2020.

Sandoz Canada, Tilray partnership underscores market legitimacy of medical marijuana.

Walls between the previously separate worlds of biotechnology and medical cannabis appear to be coming down.

Sandoz Canada Inc. recently established a partnership with B.C. medical cannabis company Tilray to produce and distribute medical marijuana products. Sandoz Canada is a division of Switzerland’s Novartis (VTX:NOVN), one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

Toronto’s Tilray has its processing plant and facilities in Nanaimo, B.C., and in Enniskillen and London, Ontario. The company employs more than 240 people in four Canadian provinces and seven countries and serves patients all over the world.