• In Ontario, the OPP also reported no increase in drug-impaired driving. “We’ve seen some increase, but it’s not huge,” said OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt.
  Canada.com
• Edmonton city councillor Scott McKeen noted in spite of an increase in police charges for drug-impaired driving and open cannabis containers in that city, cannabis complaints in Edmonton been dwarfed by complaints about tobacco. McKeen said the “cannabis apocalypse” many expected didn’t arrive.
  CBC Calgary

Quick Hits

1. A Toronto condo board demanded condo-owners who planned to smoke cannabis in their units sign up for a registry maintained by the board. Residents say such a registry is an infringement on their privacy, while a real estate lawyer argued it wasn’t a practical solution to odour problems that create the most friction between residents.
   CBC Toronto
2. Sales of home-cultivation equipment are booming.
   Globe and Mail
3. Canadian LPs aren’t interested in the social and cultural context of cannabis in Jamaica when they go there looking for MED export deals. Locals worry Canadian and other foreign cannabis businesses will replicate the history of the colonial sugarcane industry on the island.
   Financial Post

• The initial decision would have granted MED patients the right to possess one kilogram of cannabis in public. Federal Court of Appeal Justice David Near said Harris should find other ways to find MED when he’s away from home, and that if Harris were granted a constitutional exemption, other MED users would have that as well, which he said could lead to theft, violence, or diversion.
  CBC Politics
• NextLeaf Labs president “Canna Tom” Ulanowski suggested an alternate headline to stories stressing the 100-gram daily prescription: “Patient who uses arbitrary amount of cannabis granted right to possess a higher arbitrary amount of cannabis, relative to what is arbitrarily allowed.”
  Twitter
• Lawyer Kirk Tousaw noted, “Prior to 2014 Harris could have possessed a 30 day supply or 3kg.” He added, “My goal is no personal possession limits. For REC or MED.”
  Twitter
• Harris said he will continue to fight for the right to three kilograms. “There’s no other medication that’s based on amount,” he said. “Why am I able to get 30 days of any narcotic, but I can’t have 10 days or 30 days of my cannabis? I can smoke myself to death, I can eat myself to death or I can drink myself to death and the government doesn’t do anything about it. But when it comes to cannabis, then we’ve got to be protected.”

Quick Hits

1. A 60-year-old BC woman said she’s given up three prescriptions since turning to MED and will file a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal to challenge her condo development’s anti-cannabis bylaw.
   Canada.com
2. Cronos Group CEO Mike Gorenstein said Health Canada’s regulations will prevent the emergence of global brands and MED patients decried Health Canada’s 10mg THC caps on edibles, while the Star editorial board argued protecting children from accidental consumption merits “a safe and stodgy strategy.”
   Bloomberg, Botaniq, The Star
3. Producers of non-cannabis Natural Health Products (NHP) are using the trendiness of the endocannabinoid system to promote products like ginger, echinacea, and clove, believed to promote endocannabinoid function.
   Victoria Times Colonist

• This week, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis issued 20 new REC retail licenses, bringing the number of licensed REC stores in the province to a total of 156.
  Globe and Mail
• The rapid increase in stores has led to a cannabis hiring boom.
  Globe and Mail

Quick Hits

1. BC premier John Horgan said there was a “glitch in the system” causing the slow rollout of REC retail licenses. “I thought we had adequate time to get this up and running. Clearly the system is not moving at the pace the private sector needs,” Horgan said.
   Radio NL
2. Grower Ryan Lee suggested the slow REC rollout might be deliberate on the part of the BC government, which recognizes how much of its provincial economy is tied up in the illicit cannabis industry. Lee noted, “Small town BC couldn’t exist without the Cannabis $ infusion. Everybody knows a grower, a trimmer, a broker.”
   Twitter
3. Victoria City staff oppose a pilot project for cannabis consumption-sites (lounges). City clerk Chris Coates recommended the city not adopt the project because such sites are under provincial review, and allowing them might lead to conflict with the province or with Ottawa.
   Victoria News
4. A Victoria restaurant plans to eventually serve infused food and drinks. Trees: Island Grown is operated by Trees Cannabis Company, which is operating illegally while it waits for licensing, and Tress CEO Alex Robb is optimistic that within a year to eighteen months, BC will begin allowing cannabis in restaurants.
   CBC Victoria

• The new lottery will take place on August 20, but Expression of Interest applications must be submitted between August 7 and 8:00pm August 9.
  The Leaf
• The application period for eight stores in First Nations stores begins earlier, on July 31, and requires the support of a Band Council resolution approving a REC store in the community. Aspiring REC retailers on Reserve would require no working capital or letter of credit.
• Those who participated in the last lottery will not get priority, and will have to submit new applications and pay new fees.
  Twitter—Matt Columbro
• Lottery applicants must show a bank letter stating they have access to $250,000, another bank letter showing they can get a $50,000 line of credit, and a letter securing retail space. They’ll also be vetted to make certain they’re ready to open a store. Vetting will take place between August 10 and 19, and the lottery will follow on August 20.
  Bloomberg
• Vetting will not be merit-based.
  Globe and Mail
• Brock University’s Michael J Armstrong said, “This time, the government’s rules will screen out most of the unprepared entries that seemed common in the first lottery. One side effect is that they’ll screen out ‘mom and pop’ entrepreneurs who have retail experience but little liquid cash; i.e. the classic small retailer.”
  Globe and Mail
• Ontario has not yet finished opening its first 25 stores, which were all supposed to open on April 1. With news this week the Oshawa REC store previously known as Tripsetter, then as Fabulous Leaf, received a license to open as Tokyo Smoke Oshawa.
• That brings Ontario’s total REC retailers to 23.

• The AGCO notified existing REC retailers they’ll be able to sell their stores after December 13.
  Twitter—Matt Maurer
• The Ontario government continues to stress it is limited in the number of stores it can open by what it calls “federal supply issues.” Reuters
• Bill Blair argued there was plenty of REC available in the rest of the country. In a statement, Blair said, “With the notable exception of Ontario, the rest of the country has made steady progress in displacing the illicit market with licensed and regulated retail stores. While the rest of the country made progress, the Ford government made excuses. [… The Ontario government spent] months of blaming an inept approach on a non-existent supply shortage.”
  CBC News

1. Saskatchewan and Manitoba allow private REC retailers to operate online stores—which means those provinces will be the first to offer same-day REC delivery. Some services like Pineapple Express handle delivery directly, while others, like Super Anytime, connect retailers with such services.
   Financial Post
2. In the years leading up to legalization, BC residents consumed far and away the most cannabis in Canada. Between 2013 and 2017, 23% of BC residents above the age of 15 reported using cannabis, versus the national average of 15%.
   604 Now
3. Inuvik, NWT, passed a bylaw prohibiting REC retailers in its “downtown corridor,” which is what it’s calling the stretch of MacKenzie Road between the Inuvik Hospital and Ingamo Hall. The goal is to keep REC retailers away from youth heading to and from school.
   CBC North

• The termination follows comments from Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands that the company was “not pleased with Canopy’s recently reported year-end results.”
  The Star
• Constellation, U.S.-based parent of Corona beer and numerous other alcohol brands, invested $5B in Canopy last fall for 38% of Canopy shares and control of the Canopy board. Last month Constellation’s Mike Lee became Canopy’s acting CFO.
  Bloomberg
• Linton said his firing was Constellation’s decision. “About eight months and two days later [after the Constellation deal closed],” Linton told CNBC, “I think the board had decided they wanted a different chair and a different co-CEO.”
  Globe and Mail
• Constellation said it “fully supports” the decision to fire Linton. One analyst told Barron’s, “When you write a [US]$4 billion check, you have certain expectations.”
  Bloomberg, Barron’s

• Noting the two biggest LPs are now run controlled out of the US, Globe analyst Andrew Willis was supportive of Linton, saying he “lost his job because his visionary approach for Canopy Growth Corp. didn’t fit with the predictable, quarter-by-quarter profits demanded by [Newlands], a booze-industry veteran and Harvard Business School grad.”
  Globe and Mail
• Linton’s vision for the company was long-term, but Newlands indicated he was more interested in profits in the shorter term than building up the company.
  Financial Post, Globe and Mail
• Linton’s other co-CEO, Mark Zekulin, is the last of the original Canopy co-founders (Chuck Rifici left Canopy in 2015 and runs Auxly today). Zekulin became the company’s only interim CEO, but will also depart once a permanent CEO is in place.
  MarketWatch

• Linton will receive $925,000 severance pay. The Globe estimated he made more than $200M during his time as CEO.
  Twitter—Betting Bruiser, Globe and Mail
• Linton said he did not plan to sell his 18M shares in Canopy and Canopy Rivers.
• Two weeks ago, Bloomberg ran an extensive profile on Linton. Last weekend, two separate UK reports on Canopy and its headquarters in Smith’s Falls, ON, compared Linton to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory‘s Willy Wonka, but for cannabis.
  Bloomberg, the Guardian, the Spectator
• Commentator Mike Zmuda noted, “it’s quite possible this may be an overall worse situation for medical access and other areas. […] Looking at it through a business-only lens, he deserves praise / recognition for elevating the profile of cannabis worldwide. Through a cannabis lens though: big alcohol now controls one of the largest cannabis companies in the world.” (Zmuda also wrote a thoughtful reflection on Linton’s firing on his website.)
  Twitter, Night Court Cannabis Edition

Quick Hits

1. Globe columnist Barrie McKenna argued cannabis may never be a major profit-making industry in Canada, where the cannabis market is “small, highly regulated (as it must be) and vastly oversupplied.”
   Globe and Mail

2. Industry people want the government to invest in educating the public about the coming slate of soon-to-be-legal cannabis products.
   Global News

3. The C-45 Quality Association called for cultivators and regulatory people to join their quality/compliance organization, which is working to develop best practices and standards for the Canadian cannabis sector.
   C45 Association

• Retailers—and media—claimed this was “illegal cannabis disguised to look like the legitimate product.”

Quick Hits

1. Prohibition may ironically lead to increased cannabis consumption—and legalization may force consumption down.
   The Street
2. The Liberal government passed its record-suspension legislation last week—but since most people with criminal records have more than a single cannabis possession charge, experts don’t expect there will be much demand for pardons under the new law.
   CBC Politics
3. Quebec was never as lenient toward illicit dispensaries as Ontario or BC, quickly cracking down on dispensaries as soon as it became aware of them. In 2017, I wrote about the high profile raid that took place at Quebec City’s Cannoisseur, the third MED dispensary in the city to open and quickly get raided in 2017. Its owners pled guilty this week to trafficking and possession with intent to traffic.
   Leafly, Journal de Montreal—In French
4. In an opinion piece bemoaning Health Canada’s legalization 2.0 regulations, Dalhousie University cannabis food distribution professor Sylvain Charlebois described Canadian legalization as offering the equivalent of “some dingy bingo hall playing lousy music.”
   Chronicle Herald

• Interim CEO Meni Morim declined to say how many companies had agreed to work with Namaste.
• “The change in model from wholesale to consignment has been quite recent. There’s been a lot of fear and doubt about Namaste since February,” Morim told the Globe.

Quick Hits

1. Supreme Cannabis launched London, UK–based Supreme Heights, an investment platform aimed to service the UK and European CBD boom. It also partnered with Wiz Khalifa and Khalifa Kush Enterprises Canada to launch a line of high-THC REC oils. This marks Khalifa and Khalifa Kush’s entry into the Canadian market.
   NewsWire, Press Release, The Straight
2. Organigram, which does not plan to develop its own infused ingestibles, is looking for a beverage-production partner with a global distribution footprint.
   MJ Biz Daily
3. Cannahorse, “Created for horse people, by horse people,” billed itself on its launch as “the world’s first-ever legal cannabis brand dedicated to horse health.” Quality horse puns followed on twitter, as did someone who remembered, “Purity Hemp in Mt Pleasant, Ontario has been doing hemp based equine products since 1999. ‘CannaHorse’ is not the first to market.”