As well as the funding from a group of Irish investors, Isodiol is providing €1.25m.

Pharmaceutical start-up GreenLight Medicines has secured €500,000 in funding as it seeks to develop “breakthrough medicines” using cannabis extracts.

The company, which primarily focuses on exploring the “full potential of cannabis and cannabinoids as a medicine”, secured the phase-two funding from a consortium of private Irish investors. It follows an initial €100,000 seed investment.

The new funding will enable the company to “further progress” its Irish and UK research in advancing medicines using cannabis extracts (cannabinoids) and other plant-derived molecules to treat a variety of illnesses.

Flying a bit under the radar in August, the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse wrote an explainer to a significant longitudinal study involving young twins and marijuana pointing out that marijuana did not cause a decrease in IQ.

In the explainer titled "Study Questions Role for Marijuana in Teen Users' IQ Decline," the agency wrote:

Nearly 20 laboratories across Canada have come forward to offer independent testing of marijuana after the federal government changed its laws last month, allowing consumers to screen the product – which is often sold as medicine – for contaminants and potency.

Previously, the public was banned from getting access to Health Canada-accredited labs to ensure the safety and efficacy of the drug, which the government plans to legalize next spring. The move comes after concerns were raised that the federal government has watched idly as unregulated marijuana dispensaries proliferated across the country, reaping huge profits in a booming prelegalization market, though some of the products would not meet federal health standards.

In the evolving field of medical marijuana, ensuring the proper dose can be a challenge. hmbldt’s dose pen is designed to offer consistent medication delivery to patients.

While medical marijuana is now legal in the majority of the U.S., the industry is new and still finding its footing in terms of standardization. With a wide variety of products and delivery forms (including inhalable, edible and topical products), patients can have trouble with dose consistency.

But strides are being made to provide patients with dosage control and consistency across batches, such as with encapsulated cannabis oil and vaporizer pens.

Canadian schools and grads are in a position to capitalize on pot.

Brendan Kennedy first caught a whiff of opportunity six years ago. The former software entrepreneur—newly armed with an M.B.A. from Yale—was working at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm when he spotted something unusual amid the thousands of dossiers on tech, software and biotech firms: a start-up focused on medical marijuana.

Edibles and topical cannabis goods are for sale at upcoming Nuit Verte, held in a "top secret" location Sept. 25.

A farmer’s market for edible pot products is cropping up in Toronto.

Toronto’s first “Nuit Verte” will be held at a “top secret” location Sept. 25. Organizer Lisa Campbell said they’re expecting about 300 people, who will learn where it is once they buy tickets online.

According to Campbell, about 20 local pot producers will be on hand to hawk their wares, explain ingredients and offer samples.

“You can go there and ask questions about the products, you can know what stream is in your product, what’s vegan or gluten free or organic, it’s very much a craft market,” she said.

Just days before Lift Cannabis Expo took place this past weekend in Vancouver, the event's primary sponsor lost its Instagram account and 11,000 followers along with it.

Lift Cannabis is a news and review site for medical cannabis that only does strain reviews for legal weed available through licensed producers. According to Lift, none of the photos posted to its Instagram feed depict recreational or black market weed.

Still, near the beginning of September, Lift communications director David Brown said he attempted to log into the company's Instagram account and found that the page had been deleted.

"When I logged in in the morning and opened up my Instagram account it just said 'this page is no longer available.'"

Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes Israeli entrepreneurs succeed because they challenge authority, question everything and don’t play by the rules.

“The impact of the Israelis on science and technology is immense, so that’s why I’m here and why I’m investing here,” he told a large crowd at Israel’s Weizman Institute in 2015.

Schmidt’s statements not only apply to Israel’s high tech businesses and start-up companies, but also to its budding medical marijuana industry. From organic chemists to entrepreneurs, nearly everyone in Israel’s field of medical marijuana attributes at least a part of their success to Israel’s culture of rule-bending and not taking “no” for an answer.

A two day marijuana exhibition in Vancouver is giving people an idea of just how large and varied Canada’s cannabis industry has become — and where it could grow next.

More than 100 businesses set up booths to showcase their wares at the event, but not a single cloud of smoke could be seen in the massive hall.

The expo is helping to break down stereotypes and prove that there’s a credible side to the industry, said Natasha Raey, spokeswoman for Lift Cannabis Co., which put on the show.

“It’s not just someone selling bud out of a ziploc bag anymore. You’re seeing real brand development. The industry is growing up,” she said.

Whether you smoke, vape or eat it as a cookie, a well-documented side effect of marijuana use is increased hunger.

Also known as "the munchies", the phenomenon is so common it has seeped its way from many a dark, smoky bedroom through to the big screen — inspiring scenes in everything from the films of Cheech and Chong to the Ted series starring Mark Wahlberg.

But despite the humorous depiction of the munchies on film, hunger can be a serious and powerful side effect of cannabis use.

The term "munchies" is said to have been first noted in the famous study on 'being stoned' by Charles T Tart in 1971, in which the mental state of 150 marijuana users was observed.

More recently though, research has focused on the neurological processes behind the munchies.