Despite no official word from the province on how it plans to manage the sale of recreational cannabis come October, private retailers are flocking to Ontario to set up shop.

"Ontario is a frenzy right now in terms of entrepreneurs, real estate developers — anybody within the cannabis infrastructure," said David Martyn, president of Starbuds Canada and Compass Cannabis Clinic.

"The level of anticipation that's building up is massive right now."

Sari Starr recalls having to sneak around in order to smoke weed with her friends when she was growing up in Toronto in the mid-to-late ’90s.

Her parents were vehemently against drug use, and one of her biggest adolescent memories was the fear she felt when a police officer caught her smoking pot in a park.

Now living in cannabis-friendly California, Starr has become an ardent advocate of marijuana use, and believes the potent plant can revolutionize the health and wellness industry.

So she’s returning to her hometown at the end of the month to host the adult-only, weed-focused Cannabliss Retreat — a five-day celebration of the herb’s history, culture and ever-evolving future.

Though it may appear lofty, this detailed look at more than a dozen cannabis players suggests that 3 million kilograms of output is very doable.

This may very well go down in history as the most pivotal year for the legal cannabis industry. While numerous legalizations have been heralded before, we've never seen an industrialized country legalize recreational weed prior to Canada doing so. When sales officially kick off on Oct. 17, 2018, big money is expected to flow into the industry, with some analysts projecting in excess of $5 billion in sales being added once the industry is fully ramped up.

Why some industry insiders say growing indoors could affect insurance rates and home sales. On Oct. 17, many Canadians will have the legal right to cultivate small amounts of cannabis at home.

But just because something is legal doesn't mean it's without potential pitfalls. Here are some of the questions aspiring green thumbs will want to consider before potting pot plants indoors this fall.

Will it damage my home?

The governments of Manitoba and Quebec have pre-emptively banned home growing, but elsewhere across the country, households will soon be allowed to grow up to four cannabis plants at a time — a limit chosen by the federal government to minimize the health and safety risks of cultivation.

Allen Kilback doesn't know yet what his Edenwold, Sask., cannabis dispensary will be called.

But he's got his main demographic picked out: women aged 30 to 40.

He settled on that during a recent research trip to California, where he watched customers stream into one of that state's legal recreational pot stores.

"People pull up with their kids in the car and they go in," he said.  

Familiar faces

Normalizing the process of buying pot is part of what Kilback, 52, wants to do alongside his wife and business partner, Denise.

"I spent some time in U.S. looking at the industry and decided, you know what, I saw a tremendous opportunity to really change the stigma about the industry and got super motivated," he said.

Aphria Inc. (TSX:APH) reported its 2018 fourth-quarter and year-end results on August 1. While its revenue surged, its loss nearly doubled as the company prepared for the legalization of recreational cannabis in October. Shares plunged over 8% in reaction to those results. What may also have contributed to the drop is the announcement that Molson Coors Canada selected Hydropothecary Corp. over Aphria to develop cannabis-infused beverages. Is there any reason to be concerned? Let’s have a deeper look at the results to determine if Aphria is still a good investment. Revenue soared, but loss widened Aphria’s fourth-quarter revenue increased by…

While much of the country is focused on cannabis as it relates to consumers — the countdown to legal weed on Oct. 17, protocols for marijuana retailers, penalties for impaired drivers, and so on — municipalities along Ontario’s south coast are busily trying to manage the growth of a nascent industry.

Here, the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes and the arrival of industrial-scale production have sprouted concerns that will only thicken in years ahead. After all, the time remaining before the recreational marijuana market opens up in Canada is about the same as the life cycle of a cannabis plant.

More and more professional athletes are advocating for using cannabis to enhance their performance and to relieve pain caused by sport-related injuries. Though the research for the effects of cannabis on athletes is limited there are many pro-cannabis advocates and studies that show some advantages to pairing cannabis and exercise.

The positive effects shown in these studies are not necessarily directly related to the sports themselves, but rather that cannabis is shown to help with relaxation, which can come in handy before and after a game.

Though more research is needed on how cannabis can potentially benefit athletes, people are still turning to the plant for their pre and post workout. Here are five reasons that athletes are using cannabis:

From gummy bears and lollipops to ice cream, the choices for Canadians could be endless when cannabis-infused edibles are expected to become legal a year after the legalization of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17.

But those kinds of treats may not be coming to stores or online retailers in Canada right away. Experts say any marijuana-infused food that’s attractive to children likely won’t be permitted for sale in Canada – just one of the many examples of the looming challenges that Canada’s regulators face in the legalization of edibles.

Anne McLellan, former chair of the federal cannabis taskforce, said the body has warned the government against permitting the sale of edible cannabis products that could be appealing to children.

The Cannabis Act has passed, a date is set for the introduction of legal recreational cannabis across the country: What comes next? Full drug legalization? Easy access to narcotics, psychotropic escapism, values corroded, families torn apart, Canada spinning into the abyss?

Remember this feeling; log these concerns. Because this is similar to how people felt nearly a century ago. Then the drug was alcohol and the worries were much more profound. Social decline, moral corruption, economic collapse, national disaster – these were the concerns that drove liquor prohibition, shaped post-prohibition regulation and provided a template for cannabis legalization.