Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Canadian cannabis company Aphria said Thursday it was exploring “strategic alternatives,” including a sale, for its U.S. business, amid tightening enforcement of federal cannabis laws in the country. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice revoked an Obama administration policy that discouraged federal prosecutors from pursuing marijuana-related crimes in states that had […] Read more
Cannabis firm Aphria mulls sale of U.S. unit
Ontario medical marijuana producers plan major merger
Reading Time: 2 minutes A southwestern Ontario greenhouse firm billed as one of Canada’s lowest-cost medical marijuana producers plans to expand its reach by buying a rival firm sourcing cannabis worldwide for processing. Aphria Inc., based at Leamington, Ont., announced Monday it has locked in a cash-and-stock deal to buy Toronto-based Nuuvera Inc. for $826 million. The deal, expcted […] Read more
Canadians spent $5.7 billion on cannabis in 2017
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadians spent an estimated $5.7 billion on cannabis in 2017, Statistics Canada said on Thursday, with the country on track to legalize recreational use of the drug nationwide later this year. About 4.9 million Canadians between the ages of 15 to 64 purchased both medical and non-medical cannabis last year, the […] Read more
Aurora, CanniMed to form Canadian weed giant
Reading Time: 2 minutes Two major players in the Canadian medical marijuana market are set to create one of the world’s biggest pot production firms in a friendly $1.1 billion cash-and-stock deal. Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis announced an agreement Wednesday in which it will ante up on its previous hostile bid for CanniMed Therapeutics and buy all the shares of […] Read more
Cannabis firm Aurora in talks to buy both CanniMed, Newstrike
Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto | Reuters — Canadian marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis is in talks with rivals CanniMed Therapeutics and Newstrike Resources to buy both businesses in a friendly deal that would create the nation’s top weed company, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. The deal signals an easing of tensions following an offer in […] Read more
Feds, provinces end dispute on how to split pot tax revenues
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters –– The Canadian government and the 10 provinces on Monday settled a disagreement on how to split the revenues from a proposed federal tax on the sale of marijuana once the drug is legalized, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said. Morneau told reporters that for an initial two years, 75 per cent of […] Read more
StatsCan to add marijuana economic impact to GDP data
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — As Canada gears up to legalize recreational marijuana, the country’s statistics agency said on Tuesday it will begin measuring the economic impact of the current illegal use and production of the drug and add it to growth data. Statistics Canada said it will begin tallying the production and sale of cannabis […] Read more
Constellation hedges bets on pot boom with Canopy stake
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Constellation Brands has bought a nearly 10 per cent stake in Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth Corp. for about $245 million, making it the first major wine, beer and spirits producer to invest in legal cannabis. The move by the maker of Corona beer and Svedka vodka comes as Canada and a growing […] Read more
Post-secondary cannabis credentials on offer
Reading Time: 2 minutes Degree and diploma aggies interested in producing commercial cannabis and/or hemp will be able to get college-certified starting next year. Niagara College announced Tuesday it will launch a graduate certificate program in commercial cannabis production in 2018, a program it bills as Canada’s “first post-secondary credential” in the crop’s production. Niagara picked up approval this […] Read more
Pot farmers needed
With a projected $22 billion in sales, Canada’s new cannabis market is generating a very heady kind of buzz in farm circles
Reading Time: 9 minutes Working in total darkness, Thaddeus Conrad carefully feels his way up a nearly vertical set of stairs before switching on a single green light. The bulb casts a weak, eerie glow, revealing a room packed with heavily budded marijuana plants. But there’s nothing clandestine about the hazy light or the darkness, it’s simply great crop science […] Read more
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