Global Ganja Report

With Canada on a final one-month countdown to legal cannabis, the country's provinces are adopting widely varying regulation regimes, creating a "crazy quilt" policy patchwork. While Ontario and Quebec are opting for provincial government monopolies on retail sales, Alberta and Saskatchewan have embraced a private model, sparking a flood of canna-capital into these western provinces.

With US stock exchanges still almost entirely closed to cannabis businesses, the stateside industry is increasingly seeking access to the Canadian exchanges in order to secure investment. Taking over publicly traded Canadian firms through reverse mergers has emerged as the critical tactic in this endeavor.

A British Columbia firm which is one of Canada's leading licensed producers of medical marijuana has entered a partnership with the national subsidiary of Sandoz, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The deal is being hailed as a milestone that signals the arrival of cannabis in the corporate economy.

On the heels of December's British Columbia high court decision striking down mandatory minimum prison terms for cannabis defendants as "cruel and unusual punishment" in contravention of Canada's constitution, the provincial court system has now just applied similar principles to use of solitary confinement.

The Appeal Court of British Columbia, the province's highest, on Dec. 28 upheld a lower court ruling that the minimum two-year prison term for marijuana possession "for purpose of trafficking" under Canada's Controlled Drugs & Substances Act is unconstitutional. Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein dismissed the Crown's appeal of a 10-month sentence imposed when Phillip Francis McGee pleaded guilty after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided his home in Surrey.

Canada's prince and princess of pot, activist-entrepreneurs Marc and Jodie Emery, have been charged with multiple trafficking-related counts, following the March 9 raids on their Cannabis Culture outlets in Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton, Ont. CBC News reports that the duo face multiple charges including drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and conspiracy. Jodie Emery reacted to the busts by calling out the Trudeau government for hypocrisy. She told Canada's Global News: "If this is legalization, then Justin Trudeau lied to the Canadian people. This is a new form of prohibition." Urging Candians to call Prime Minister Trudeau and "ask why we're seeing more people being harmed under our so-called legalization than we ever saw under [ex-PM] Stephen Harper's anti-marijuana poicies."

Police carried out raids on several Cannabis Culture outlets across Canada March 9, one day after the dispensary chain's founders, Marc and Jodie Emery, were arrested. As of press time, five Cannabis Culture locations have been raided in Toronto, and one in Hamilton, Ont., as well as the flagship location in Vancouver, BC. Canada's self-described "Prince of Pot" and his wife were taken into custody at Toronto's Pearson International Airport as they were about to depart for the cannabis expo Spannabis in Barcelona, the Vancouver Sun reports.

After nine years of Conservative rule, Canada's Liberal Party had a momentous election night on Oct. 19, gaining a majority of seats in Parliament and a new prime minister in Justin Trudeau. The handsome and charismatic son of Canada's most formative prime minister, Trudeau had worked as a school teacher in Vancouver before becoming a parliamentarian representing Quebec. He promised a new beginning in Canadian politics—and a break with the increasingly right-wing policies of his predecessor, Stephen Harper. It remains to be seen if he will able to follow through on his ambitious promises—including to legalize cannabis.