B.C. cannabis producer Agrima Botanicals Corp. has had its licences revoked by Health Canada, months after the company disclosed the regulator's finding that "unauthorized activities" with pot took place at the firm.

Agrima is now listed on Health Canada's website of licensed producers with the status "revoked," after having its licences suspended last fall.

Agrima's parent company Ascent Industries Corp. said in November that the regulator had asserted that "unauthorized activities" involving cannabis occurred at the company during a period of time when it was privately held, but it was appealing its suspension.

Cindi Olsen was a medical cannabis patient when that was the only way to legally access the drug in Canada.

Nearly nine months after marijuana became legal for all Canadians, the breast cancer survivor is starting to feel like medical users have been left behind. 

“It feels like we’ve been elbowed out,” she admitted.

The Cambridge, Ont., woman was diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a long-term side effect from cancer treatment. 

“I was left with this really painful condition and I’m in a situation now where I’m totally disabled .... I have really severe limitations,” Olsen explained. “And because it’s nerve pain, it’s really difficult to manage.”

Cannabis is a “young” industry that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is taking time to assess for potential investment opportunities, the outgoing president and CEO of the $191.1-billion fund manager says.

“We have to be mindful before we take these substantial sums of money that we have, and really push them into an industry [that’s] evolving,” Ron Mock told BNN Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman on Thursday.

“We don’t have to be first ones in [cannabis]. We definitely can take our time and study it.”

Although cannabis legalization is new to many countries and elusive to many more, the cannabis market is growing at an astounding rate. In the U.S. alone, approximately 7 per cent of Americans are using cannabidiol (CBD) for many purposes, which leaves room for the industry to grow to $16 billion by 2025.

Alberta is placing an unspecified amount of CannTrust products on hold as a precautionary measure, officials said, pending an investigation by Health Canada into whether cannabis from unlicensed facilities is safe for consumption.

The move by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) comes after Ontario's cannabis distributor pulled CannTrust products from its site.

CannTrust Holdings Danish partner Stenocare says it also has quarantined medical pot products linked to illegal cultivation at the Canadian cannabis company's Ontario greenhouse.

Tilray has managed to successfully import its first bulk supply of medical cannabis oil into the UK.

With marijuana now medically legal in 33 states and recreationally legal in 11 states (plus D.C.), the concept of smoking, vaping, or eating it is fair game in the mainstream. But with lingering restrictions on testing it due to the Drug Enforcement Administration, how it affects the brain remains murky territory.

Touted as only the second commercial cannabis growing operation in Northern Ontario, Sudbury-based GaiaCann Inc. is looking to position itself as a medical cannabis industry leader with plans to launch a 32,000 sq. ft. indoor cultivation facility in 2020.

“The Innovation Project” facility is to be located in the northeastern Ontario town of Espanola, approximately 40 minutes from Sudbury. The facility will primarily focus on cultivation, extraction and purification of cannabis and center on medical products, notes information on the company website. Its expected capacity could produce 2,750 kg of dried cannabis and 200,000 kg of extracted product each year.

The Town of Espanola could soon be host to Northern Ontario’s second commercial cannabis growing operation by the spring of 2020.

Sudbury-based GaiaCann Inc. is out to make a global name for itself in the medical marijuana business with a sizeable and scalable development in the northeastern Ontario paper mill town, 40 minutes west of Sudbury.

Their ambitious expansion plans over the next two to three years are already underway with construction started on a first-phase cultivation and extraction facility, located on the southeast corner of the community. 

TruTrace Technologies Inc (CSE:TTT) (OTC:TTTSF) is weaving in cannabis testing facility A&L Canada Labs to its medical cannabis verification pilot program with Shoppers Drug Mart.

A&L Canada Labs will be one of the inaugural testing facilities at Shoppers locations. The program is built around TruTrace’s StrainSecure platform, which can verify the origin, authenticity and quality assurance of cannabis products.