• The alert’s authors—Dr. Dominic Chalut and trauma director Debbie Friedman—say since legalization, there have been 26 cannabis-poisoning-related visits to the Children’s.
• Santé Cannabis president Erin Prosk noted “Increase post-legalization could be due to increase in reportings or growth curve following illicit market commercialization in last couple years.”
  Twitter
• Some media reports of the alert handled the subject poorly. Global News’ report, which noted “media reports about overdoses seem to be making Canadians nervous,” failed to mention that edibles are not yet legal, or that cannabis overconsumption cannot result in death.
• Infused cannabis edibles and ingestibles will likely not become available until 2020, since the 60 days’ notice LPs are required to give Health Canada before bringing a new product to market should be considered a bare minimum. Regulators are not familiar with cannabis edibles, and will be very careful assessing them.
  MJ Biz Daily

Quick Hits

1. Public health scholars singled out Manitoba and Quebec for producing anti-cannabis PSAs for youths that would be less likely to help kids make informed cannabis choices, and more likely to “overstate the evidence on certain cannabis-related harms, and appear to omit the experiences of young people” who have tried cannabis without apparent negative effects.
   The Leaf
2. A disabled Nova Scotia MED user I discussed in late April lost his court appeal for the right to smoke MED in his no-smoking apartment, and was evicted. He spent the first night sleeping in his motorized wheelchair in the woods with a garbage bag over his head to keep the rain off.
   CTV News
3. Health Canada hasn’t decided whether CBD products are safe for pets, but pet owners would like them to hurry up and make CBD products available for issues like pet arthritis and anxiety.
   CBC Montreal

• Montreal mayor Valérie Plante opposed the law, saying it would be impossible to enforce in a city where 60% of residents are renters, whose landlords have the right to ban them from smoking or vaping indoors.
• Municipalities and boroughs will still have the power to enact public-smoking bans of their own, such as already exist in some Montreal boroughs.
  Ici Radio Canada—In French
• Health minister Lionel Carmant, said Quebec still intends to raise the age of cannabis consumption from 18 (the lowest in the country) to 21 (the highest).

Quick Hits

1. The eight directors of Quebec’s provincial REC retailer the Société Québécoise Du Cannabis will be paid a total of $1.4M this year.
   TVA Nouvelles—In French
2. The SQDC has determined supply is adequate to open all 14 stores across the province all week at their original hours.
   CBC Montreal
3. Public health officials in Sherbrooke, Quebec, pushed back against concerns that an SQDC store opening in the community would contribute to mental health problems.
   Ici Radio-Canada—In French
4. The Quebec public is very excited about MED. Waiting lists to see a Santé Cannabis doctor are six months long.
   Journal de Montréal
5. Brad “PancakeNap420” Martin brought his sweeping data analysis—last used to examine BC Cannabis Stores—to pick through data from the SQDC. He found it charges an $8.18 average price per gram, and sells product with an average THC content of 17.4%. As usual, there’s a lot more information in here laid out in easy-to-digest infographics. He also released a smaller historical price-per-gram analysis of dried-flower sales by AlbertaCannabis.org, and a similar dried-cannabis report for the Ontario Cannabis Store.
   PancakeNap

• Gladu would push Health Canada to enforce its regulations more aggressively—except its packaging regs, which she wants them to relax to compete with the illicit market. Gladu supports the market’s biggest players at the expense of craft growers, opposes home growing, and wants the Canadian government to update international drug-control treaties to reflect legalization.
• Zmuda warned Conservatives would likely abandon the pardons process for those convicted of possession. That won’t sit well with University of Toronto sociology professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah. He argued if the proposed (and, many believe, inadequate) records-suspension Bill C-93 is allowed to die over summer break, Canadians of colour will suffer most as a result.
  The Conversation

Quick Hits

1. US politicians have reintroduced the MAPLE (Maintaining Appropriate Protections for Legal Entry) Act, exempting those who admit cannabis use or participation in the Canadian or American legal cannabis industries. The Act is designed to remove the individual discretion of U.S. Customs and Border Protection guards, who at present may or may not refuse entry or ban a person from the U.S. over cannabis.
   Globe and Mail—Paywall
2. The industry side-eyed the Economist‘s Toronto Cannabis Summit 2019 convention over its entry price–$1,295 for a daylong trade show, with speakers including Kevin Sabet of anti-cannabis group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has been routinely taken to task for making exaggerated or plainly false statements to support its aims.
   GrowthOp, Vox, Alternet, Huffpost, Washington Post
3. Online polling found younger Canadians are far more enthusiastic about legalization than those over 45.
   The Star