Canadian officials are turning to the cannabis industry to see if laboratories typically used to check for cannabinoids can be also used to test for COVID-19. 

In an email sent to licensed cannabis industry executives on Thursday obtained by BNN Bloomberg, Health Canada acting director general Joanne Garrah asked respondents if there was any spare lab capacity to assist the country with COVID-19 testing. 

"Health Canada is working to identify lab capacity that might be available across the country in various sectors, including at licensed cannabis production sites, to assist with supporting COVID-19 testing," the email stated. 

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.

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Although the coronavirus has significantly impacted the retail landscape in Canada, demand for cannabis remains strong as dispensaries work to implement procedures to keep employees and customers safe.

Earlier reports have suggested that Canadian cannabis retailers are reporting an unprecedented surge in demand for cannabis as consumers stock up on product just in case the country is shutdown. This comes as retailers have modified their business models to allow for online ordering and delivery services.

Mohawk communities in Canada have closed their cannabis dispensaries and tobacco shops in an effort to reduce the flow of visitors amid the continuing outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. But despite the move, non-Indigenous people continue to visit, worrying residents that the virus will show up in their communities.

As the legal marijuana business continues to expand, staff at one Canadian cannabis company are looking to unionize in what would be a first in the country’s legal pot industry.

International labor union United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has been in contact with workers at Ontario cannabis producer WeedMD to start negotiating contracts, according to national representative Kevin Shimmin.

In this COVID-19 era, people throughout the northeast are having a challenging time finding stores that have toilet paper in stock.

Now, for a limited time only, Sudburians can turn to cannabis retailer High Life.

High Life, located in New Sudbury, saw the struggles many in the community were having and decided to reach out to their industry supply chain to see if they could help.

"It was very difficult to obtain such a basic item in Sudbury," says Eugene Konarev, the store's owner. "Since we can buy quite a bit from a channel that we found, let’s give it away. Let’s be a good neighbour and let’s help the community while there is none here."

The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China in December last year. Officially called COVID-19, the virus since then has become a global pandemic. In an effort to control the spread in Canada, it was announced recently that non-essential businesses will shut down in Ontario and Quebec. Pot shops, deemed essential, will remain open.

Cannabis, as it turns out, is an increasingly popular choice of those prepping for isolation.

On the outskirts of Toronto, next to the Pearson International Airport, there is a 16,000 square foot cannabis testing laboratory whose owner says it can process 500 coronavirus tests a day. With an investment for additional equipment, that number could rise to more than 1,000 tests a day. 

“Testing right now is just way too slow, it’s unbearably slow,” John Slaughter, the CEO of High North Laboratories told The GrowthOp. “So we started looking internally to see what would it take for us to do that kind of testing and found out it wasn’t really much. We were right on the cusp of it anyway.”

In Canada, odors in vehicles while driving will count as “reasonable suspicion” for police to request an oral fluid sample at roadside. But what about the U.S.?

Legal cannabis is still a relatively new industry in North America. Complete legalization of cannabis took place in Canada in October 2019. The laws in Canada and the U.S. with relation to legal cannabis continue to differ for the main reason that the U.S. has not yet federally legalized cannabis (it is only fully legal medically and for adult use in 11 states), although over three-quarters of the American public report being in favor of complete legalization. 

Cannabis sales are touching new highs as customers across the US and Canada stockpile weed to prepare for long spells of isolation because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Between March 16 and March 22, sales of recreational cannabis across key US markets, including California, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska, were up 50 percent and medical marijuana sales rose 41 percent from the same period last year, figures obtained from cannabis point of sale and data platform Flowhub show.