As rural youth have known for more than a generation, growing pot, even in the Canadian climate, is not so difficult. A sunny patch between young pines, a bit of fertilizer and seed and then go away till autumn.

The constraint on pot production has never been agricultural.  

Marijuana laws have been in place for so long that there will be political pressure to make sure any changes put health and safety first asCanada leads the way on pot regulation. But as governments across the country consider how to liberalize the rules on the distribution and use of cannabis, they are also laying the ground rules for a multibillion-dollar industry.

As if to blow smoke right back at police, three Nanaimo marijuana dispensaries that were raided by RCMP have reopened – with a message.

“We will have product on site by the end of the day,” said Matthew O’Donnell, a worker at Phoenix Pain Management.

On Tuesday morning, the grey area that has allowed marijuana dispensaries to operate in dozens of cities became black-and-white in Nanaimo.

Mounties acting on a cease-and-desist order issued last month escorted 16 employees away from three different pot shops and seized thousands of dollars in marijuana and cash.

“They showed me the warrant for my arrest, and I was charged subsequently with possession for the purpose of trafficking cannabis,” said Rich Scott, manager of Nature’s Source Society.

Lift Cannabis Co, Canada's leading cannabis communications company, has announced its upcoming Lift Cannabis Expo. The trade show -- the largest of its kind in Canada -- will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center on May 28-29, 2016, and will feature more than a hundred exhibitors from across Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Sponsored by the largest federally licensed medical marijuana producer, Tweed, and North America's leading seed company, Crop King Seeds, the two-day tradeshow will provide an environment for patients, consumers, industry members, entrepreneurs, local leaders, job seekers and curious individuals to come learn about one of North America's fastest growing industries.

The times are changing: will the government be able to keep up?

Cities coast to coast are seeing cannabis vapour lounges, dispensaries, and advocacy agencies entering the market, some operating in a legal grey zone.

A result of slowly changing cannabis laws, combined with a less-than-meaningful enforcement regime, have to come to suggested these new entrepreneurial activities have received less than tacit approval.

“I opened in 2000; it’s a 15 year old clientele,” said Abi Roach who owns HotBox Cafe in Toronto, the longest operating vapour lounge in North America. “The laws are changing finally, I feel pretty good, like everything we fought and worked for … is now coming to fruition.”

Search warrants for three storefront dispensaries executed after complaints

Nanaimo RCMP served search warrants on three marijuana dispensaries Tuesday following several complaints including selling pot to minors and actively soliciting sales from the sidewalk.

The warrants came just weeks after 10 pot shops in the city were hand-delivered letters from police asking them to cease sales within seven days or risk criminal charges.

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is back from an appearance at an international climate change conference with a simple question hanging over his head: What now?

A 90-day countdown is underway before Trudeau meets again with Canada's premiers to hammer out a climate-change framework that would guide federal and provincial efforts in meeting the ambitious talk from the Paris conference.

The provinces will be looking to the federal government for money to help pay for their climate-change commitments. But the Liberals have a slew of green spending promises of their own to keep, totalling more than $13 billion in new, green spending over the next four years.

As rural youth have known for more than a generation, growing pot, even in the Canadian climate, is not so difficult. A sunny patch between young pines, a bit of fertilizer and seed and then go away till autumn.

The constraint on pot production has never been agricultural.  

Marijuana laws have been in place for so long that there will be political pressure to make sure any changes put health and safety first as Canada leads the way on pot regulation. But as governments across the country consider how to liberalize the rules on the distribution and use of cannabis, they are also laying the ground rules for a multibillion-dollar industry.

Over several months, Nanaimo RCMP received several complaints from the public about illegal marihuana storefronts, also referred to as marihuana dispensaries. For instance, we had a grandmother allege her 15 year old grandchild had purchased marihuana from a storefront. Some of the storefronts were actively soliciting business by having sales people stand outside and/or waving signs to solicit customers, whether or not they had prescriptions.

BURLINGTON — A medical marijuana clinic has opened after several delays in recent weeks.

The Canadian Cannabis Clinics site is up and running at 3155 Harvester Rd., Suite 302.

"We've seen about 15 so far and have had many people stopping by to inquire. It's going very well," said Ronan Levy, the general counsel and a partner in the Burlington clinic.

There will be four people at the clinic at any given time, he said. The staff will be comprised of a physician, a receptionist, a nurse or an international medical graduate (a doctor licensed to practise in another country but not yet in Canada).

I'm an HR pro by trade and I recently went to an employment law seminar. The topic? The implications of medical marijuana in the workplace.

The speaker who opened the session was a lawyer, and let's just say he didn't present medical marijuana in an objective, balanced light. Quite the opposite, really.

He began by saying there were more marijuana dispensaries in Vancouver than Starbucks, a story Civilized covered recently. The jury's out on whether that's true or not.