Canopy Growth Corp. is temporarily shutting down its corporate-owned cannabis stores across the country Tuesday due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company said in a statement. 

Canopy, which owns 23 legal cannabis stores in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, will close its stores for an undetermined period of time at 5 p.m. local.  It is also closing its visitors centre located at its headquarters in Smiths Falls, Ont. 

“We have a responsibility to our employees, their families, and our communities to do our part to ‘flatten the curve’ by limiting social interactions. For us, that means shifting our focus from retail to e-commerce," said David Klein, chief executive officer of Canopy Growth, in a statement. 

Despite the recent closures of two B.C. facilities that resulted in the loss of 500 jobs, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation says that Canopy Growth is still moving “full steam ahead” with its planned facility in St John’s, Vocm reports.

A Morin Heights drug trafficker who supplied several kilograms of cocaine and cannabis to dealers in Newfoundland ended up with the lightest sentence meted out to people involved in the network because a Montreal judge determined he has already rehabilitated himself.

Alexandre Préfontaine, 37, was all smiles and patted his lawyer, Christian Gauthier, on the back Wednesday after they left the courtroom where Quebec Court Judge Linda Despots decided the repeat offender should only be required to serve a 90-day sentence on weekends beginning Feb. 8. The prison term will be followed by three years of probation. Préfontaine is also required to perform 200 hours of community service.

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador have reported the province’s first probable case of a lung illness related to vaping.

The province’s chief medical officer confirmed Friday that a person became ill in late 2019 after using a cannabis product, which was not available for testing.

The person was hospitalized but has since recovered.

The province did not release further details, citing privacy concerns.

Federal health officials say there have been 16 confirmed or probable cases of vaping-associated lung illnesses reported across Canada, not including the Newfoundland and Labrador case.

If you want pot edibles in Canada, you’re going to have to go a long way east.

Monday marks the first day Canadians can legally buy a range of new cannabis formats including vapes, edibles and beverages. Newfoundland and Labrador, on Canada’s easternmost edge, was one of the only provinces that appeared to have some of those products available for sale.

CannabisNL, the province’s government-owned wholesaler, had chocolate squares and gummies from Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. brands Kolab and Foray available for sale on Monday morning. Many other choices were listed as “coming soon.”

Most other provinces were days if not weeks away from offering the new products, according to representatives:

Canadian licensed producer Zenabis has increased its market share in the New Brunswick cannabis market since launching Re-Up, a lower-cost brand of flower and pre-rolls.

The Atholville, N.B.-based company has produced data indicating a 38 percent market share of sales in Cannabis NB stores across the province for the period concluding in October 2019. The number indicates a spike in sales of the brand, which rang in at 20 percent this past July.

Zenabis credits its bump in sales to the Re-Up brand, which the company hopes will give it a competitive edge against the cheaper prices offered on the unlicensed market and incentivize consumers who source their cannabis from illicit distributors to consider purchasing from the legal market.

The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador said on Wednesday they would not allow the sale of cannabis vapes, just weeks before the start of marijuana derivatives sales, as concerns linger about a possible connection between the vaping products and severe lung disease

“We will not be selling vaping products on January 1,” Fabrice Giguère, a spokesman for the Société québécoise du cannabis, which is responsible for marijuana sales in the province, said by email, adding the province had not officially announced its stance.

All of Quebec’s legal cannabis stores are run by the provincial government, while Newfoundland and Labrador’s stores are private.

Much like its flagship product, the head of Crosby's Molasses says the company's foray into cannabis edibles will be "slow and steady." 

James Crosby is also president of EYG Consumables, a subsidiary of Crosby's with plans to incorporate water-soluble cannabis products like CBD and eventually THC into powdered drinks like hot chocolate, iced tea, and fruit juices.

EYG stands for "Eat Your Greens," a reference to cannabis plants.

Crosby is the fifth generation of his family to run the long-standing molasses company, which is one of the oldest businesses in Canada.