New data suggests many patients are ditching traditional medication prescriptions such as pain killers and switching to medical cannabis instead.

Prescription drugs range from depressants and opioids to stimulants and are generally known to be highly addictive and capable of causing severe harm to the heart, brain, and liver with repeated use. Consequently, if patients abuse prescription drugs, it can ultimately prove to be life-threatening.

Sitting on a bench outside the Hunny Pot, the first cannabis retailer to open its doors in Toronto, three friends spark a pre-rolled joint they bought inside only moments earlier.

This scene wouldn’t have been possible little more than a year ago. Smoking cannabis in public wasn’t legal, neither was buying it in brick-and-mortar shops. Back then, the retail space that now houses dozens of dry leaf and oil products was only used to host the occasional pop-event after long-time tenant New Era, a hat retailer, vacated it.

We're going to have to evolve on a weekly basis

October 17, 2019, marks the first anniversary of the legalization of cannabis federally in Canada, and the date when the second phase of products — edibles, extracts, topicals and some other alternative cannabis products also become legal. 

Each province and territory were handed the reins for rolling out legalization, and the results in terms of access to legal marijuana are very different for Canadians depending on where they live. This has also had an impact on consumption patterns.

12 months after Canada legalized cannabis, sales of legal marijuana are expected to total $1 billion for the first year, according to figures reported by the Associated Press. That is considerably less than Canada’s illicit market, where weed sales are estimated as being between $5 and $7 billion.

One obvious explanation for that disparity? The difference in cost.

“One customer told me, ‘I love you and I want to support you, but I can’t buy all my cannabis here. It’s too expensive,’” said Jeremy Jacob, the co-owner of a Vancouver marijuana store, as quoted by the Associated Press. “The black-market producers are being well rewarded by legalization.”

When a jurisdiction transitions from medicinal-use-only to full cannabis legalization, it impacts older adults in different ways. In California, for example, full legalization has blurred the distinction between medicinal and adult use, as seniors frequently bypass the medical registration route entirely, and simply purchase their medicine in the state’s full service dispensaries. In the case of Canada, however, which went fully legal one year ago, the change has been both substantive and substantial.

Cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals became legal today, adding to the wealth of new ways Canadians can toke, sip and munch on weed.

As spoilt as the consumer will be once the new products hit store shelves by mid-December, a new national study found only half of Canadians feel they know how to use cannabis.

A new Canada-wide study on adult use-cannabis—released a day in advance of legalization’s first anniversary—indicates that respondents believe cannabis to be more socially acceptable than last year. Still, surveyed Canadians wish they were more knowledgeable about the drug.

Canna-curious Canadians are performing online searches and asking family or friends for information about recreational cannabis, per the study, which was performed by Maru/Blue, a national data services and research company. The study was commissioned by FIGR Inc., a Prince Edward Island-based licensed producer.

Canada’s booming cannabis industry has led to a spike in housing prices and home shortages in some regions, according to a new report from RE/MAX.

For example, Smiths Falls, Ont. -- home to Canopy Growth, which Bloomberg dubbed the largest cannabis producer in the world -- now employs 1,300 people.

An unintended consequence of that employment growth is a shortage of available homes.

On the first anniversary of Canadian cannabis legalization, "Legalization 2.0" or "Cannabis 2.0" will allow popular cannabis derivatives like edibles, infused beverages, and vapes to legally be bought and sold nationwide.

A year after Canada legalized use of recreational marijuana cannabis stocks have lost half their market value, and investors betting that the launch of higher-margin pot-infused drinks and other products will quickly lift shares may be in for a bumpy ride.

So-called cannabis 2.0 - legalization of marijuana derivatives including edibles, beverages, extracts and vape pens - takes effect on Thursday, with sales seen beginning in mid-December. While that is expected to help sagging share prices, the crucial factor for a turnaround is a significant increase in the number of stores selling the products, investors, companies and analysts said.