The $130-million lawsuit filed by a Calgary cannabis retailer is a “defensive tactic” to allow it to default on a loan, a B.C. pot company claims.

In a statement of defence and counterclaim, Tilray Inc. and its subsidiary, High Park Shops Inc. say 420 Investments Ltd., which operates Four20 cannabis outlets, owes them $7 million.

The court documents, obtained Wednesday by Postmedia, dispute 420’s claim Tilray reneged on a deal to purchase the Calgary-based company for $110 million.

Tilray alleges 420 commenced its court action in response to the defendant’s “lawful and entirely justified termination … of an agreement,” and the default by 420 of a $7-million “bridge loan” the retailer received from High Park.

Researchers at the University of Lethbridge say while clinical trials still need to be done, data they’ve been collecting over the past four years shows promise that some cannabis extracts may help in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Olga and Igor Kovalchuk have been working with cannabis since 2015, using varieties from around the world to create new hybrids and develop extracts that demonstrate certain therapeutic properties.

'There’s a lot of documented information about cannabis in cancer, cannabis in inflammation, anxiety, obesity and what not," says Igor. "When COVID-19 started, Olga had the idea to revisit our data, and see if we can utilize it for COVID."

Legal recreational cannabis sales saw a spike in Alberta over the month of March according to some of the province's major retailers.

As the COVID-19 crisis began to hit the province, it appears as though pot smokers decided to stock up.

"We’ve seen a significant increase in sales, particularly as we entered into the COVID phase – in and around March 12 and that was sustained for about two weeks," Fire & Flower Chief Financial Officer, Nadia Vattovaz told CTV News from Toronto via video chat.

"We have since that time seen a little bit of a drop off, but it’s actually returning to pre-levels," she said.

Nova Cannabis reported a similar trend.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) has received hundreds of N95 respirators from Aurora Cannabis as the Alberta-based company looks at how it can best fight COVID-19.

Rick Savone, Aurora’s senior vice-president of global government relations, said the company has donated 200 of the much-needed face masks for AHS to use as they want. He believes they will be used to directly support frontline health-care workers.

“We’re part of the community in Edmonton and in communities across Canada and we’re as concerned as anybody about what is going on and feel we need to do our part,” said Savone.

Approximately 4,000 times these past two weeks, I’ve thanked my lucky stars cannabis was legalized before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe and sent us all cowering in our bong dens.

Edmonton police are taking their fight against illegal cannabis online, but some sellers are still evading the rules.

Police say they have begun taking over more than 100 domains for websites selling illegal cannabis this week. Websites display a message indicating the domain has been seized and asking visitors with information to contact police. Recreational cannabis can only be legally purchased online from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) in this province.

At least one vendor seems to have circumvented the shutdown. Getkush.ca was seized by police this week, but a post on the company’s Facebook page indicates it changed its domain on Monday. The new website is still active.

Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Hifyre™ Inc., announced the successful launch of the Spark Perks™ Fastlane™ "click-and-collect" service in Fire & Flower Ontario store locations in Ottawa and Kingston.

Click-and-collect online cannabis ordering and pickup services recently became permissible as a result of a change in the Ontario regulations earlier this year.

Albertans are among the biggest consumers of legal cannabis in Canada but it may still be several years before the provincial government turns a profit in the industry. 

The Alberta government is expecting to lose around $26 million in the 2019-20 fiscal year and will continue to be in the red the next three years, due to setup, administration and inventory costs. The 2020-21 fiscal year is expected to be even more in the red, with a net loss of $36 million. 

The province wasn't expecting to make money in the first two years; even the previous NDP government had projected to lose about $90 million until 2020-21 when the province expected a net income of $37 million.