Pure Sunfarms, the joint venture between veteran vegetable grower Village Farms International Inc. (TSX and NASDAQ: VFF) and medical cannabis company Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V: EMH), began shipping its products to Saskatchewan Wednesday.

The City of Saskatoon’s Planning, Development and Community Services Committee has unanimously recommended that cannabis retailer license fees be reduced from the current $20,000 to $4,500 when the SLGA begins accepting new applications for stores in September.

Subsequent business license renewals are expected to remain at $85 annually. To date, $120,000 in revenue from business licensing fees has been received.

A local firm specializing in medical cannabis science is lending its expertise to the University of Saskatchewan-based VIDO-InterVac research lab's quest for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The lab, which received 23 million dollars in federal funding in March to aid its COVID-19-related research, recently moved into animal trials as part of its research.

Canopy Growth Corp. announced sweeping changes Thursday across its global operations aimed at cutting costs that will result in a charge of up to $800 million and a headcount reduction of 85 full-time positions.

Canopy said it will exit Africa, cease cultivation in Colombia, shut down its Saskatchewan production facility, and halt hemp cultivation in New York due to an oversupply of the product from last year's growing season. 

"When I arrived at Canopy Growth in January, I committed to conducting a strategic review in order to lower our cost structure and reduce our cash burn," said David Klein, Canopy’s chief executive officer, in a statement. 

Approximately 4,000 times these past two weeks, I’ve thanked my lucky stars cannabis was legalized before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe and sent us all cowering in our bong dens.

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. 

A Humboldt doctor has been ordered to pay nearly $24,000 after prescribing cannabis to nearly 1,000 patients over six weeks in 2017 while working in Saskatoon.

Dr. Mishack Zwane admitted to charges of unprofessional conduct laid by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan. The college alleged Zwane did not comply with college bylaws around the prescription of cannabis nor did he appropriately bill the province’s medical plan for his assessments of patients.

A Saskatoon-based company is looking at the possibility of cannabis as a treatment for mental health issues.

ZYUS Life Sciences has formed a partnership with a University of Saskatchewan research team to begin the process with pre-trial study.

The 18-month study will establish a baseline foundation for clinical trials.

ZYUS President C-E-O Brent Zettl says the entire process could take about five years with the hope of developing a fixed-dose combination.

Zettl says their goal is doctor-prescribed capsules that could treat disorders like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder without side-effects.

A Saskatoon woman who is fighting to have the Government of Saskatchewan subsidize her medicinal cannabis says she hopes to take her battle to the province’s highest court.

Alicia Yashcheshen, who consumes medicinal cannabis to treat her Crohn’s disease and chronic pain, receives social assistance through the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services. In 2018, she applied for special food status coverage to cover her medicinal cannabis. According to court documents, the ministry rejected the application, saying that cannabis is a drug, not a food item.