The federal government shelled out a record $75 million to cover the cost of medical marijuana for veterans in the last fiscal year — and it is on track to spend nearly $100 million this year.

The figures from Veterans Affairs Canada come despite the government having cited rising costs and a lack of scientific evidence about the drug’s medical benefits for cutting how much cannabis it would cover for veterans.

Unless a veteran gets a special medical exemption, the government will reimburse veterans for a maximum three grams of medical marijuana per day, which is down from a previous maximum of 10 grams.

An Ontario cannabis producer is laying off about 180 people following repeated problems with both its product and how it has been produced.

“We have made the extremely difficult decision to restructure our workforce to reflect the current requirements of our business,” said Robert Marcovitch, interim head of CannTrust Holdings.

The layoffs amount to about 20 per cent of the company's workforce.

Last month, CannTrust disclosed the Ontario government's cannabis retailer said it would return almost $3 million worth of cannabis to the company after determining that some of the products didn't live up to the terms of its supply agreement.

The buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) unofficial kick-off party this year was cannabis.

Things should get rolling at Windsor’s first legal pot shop by the start of November.

Kyriakos (Kirk) Anastasiadis said Wednesday his new joint at 545 Ouellette Ave. should be past regulatory hurdles, renovated, stocked and open by Nov. 1.

“I’m just excited to get working on this and bringing some good business and positivity to the downtown Windsor core,” said Anastasiadis, 30, who owns several bars and restaurants in London.

Anastasiadis was one of 42 applicants selected in the most recent Ontario lottery last month to receive a retail pot store licence, assuming all the regulatory requirements are met.

A dozen of those applicants have since been disqualified for failing to submit required documents in time. Another one withdrew the application.

When Stratford native Danyka Dunseith decided to leave her public relations job in Toronto two years ago to farm hemp on her grandmother’s farm northeast of Stratford, some called her crazy.

When it comes to cannabis, the proof is in the peeing.

Canada’s national statistics agency has been collecting and testing municipal wastewater samples from five cities for traces of cannabis to gauge actual usage of the now legal drug. The results are surprising: In some cases they contradict other Statistics Canada data on pot use, while shedding light on the potential size of the black market.

Ontario government defends updated list, saying vetting will include police checks.

The regulator overseeing Ontario’s legal cannabis stores says a dozen licence applicants who participated in the latest lottery have been disqualified.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario held a lottery for the right to apply for one of the next 42 cannabis store licences earlier this month.

Those who won the lottery had until Wednesday to submit the documents and the regulator says 12 failed to do so and were disqualified. One withdrew the application.

The AGCO says today all of the disqualified and withdrawn applicants are now being replaced by people on a waiting list.

The agency says 29 applicants provided the required documents which are now being reviewed, a process that includes background and police checks.

Even though some may consider having a bad trip as normal, wouldn’t it be amazing if a person could learn how cannabis affects them before they even tried it?

Interested in a career in the cannabis industry, but don’t know where to start? Canadian colleges and universities have introduced cannabis-specific programs for careers in the budding industry. Here are some to consider for the fall semester.