Read Next Article →

Stories on cannabis continue to be big news—often front-page news—as companies and consumers adjust to legalization. We examine all the articles and select the ones that are most likely to impact you, as a Canadian investor.

1. A researcher at the University of Alberta suggests scientific support for cannabis as a breakthrough pain reliever remains “underwhelming.”

Michael Allan, director of evidence-based medicine for the university’s department of family medicine, points to “reasonable evidence” of pot’s power to help control nausea and ease the severity of spasms. Still, he says there’s been little evidence so far to support the growing belief in its pain-killing properties.

“Medical cannabinoids have been advocated for an extensive variety of conditions, from glaucoma to cancer,” writes Allan. “Unfortunately, bias is pervasive throughout the medical cannabinoid literature, including in randomized controlled trials.

“This is compounded by poor reporting in the media, with 79 per cent of medical cannabinoid newspaper stories providing inappropriate information, most of which was sensationalism.”

Many researchers in the area agree that the scientific study of cannabis has yet to back up long-held anecdotal beliefs about its use as a broadly effective pain reliever.

Still, research has started to ramp up.

The University of New Brunswick will be the first in Canada to claim an academic researcher entirely focused on cannabis and its medicinal impact.

Yang Qu, recently hired as that university’s cannabis health research chair and assistant professor, concedes marijuana efficacy is an area that still needs study.

2. One Canadian cannabis producer is pointing to customer complaints about possible mould as the reason for its voluntary recall of thousands of grams of product from the Ontario Cannabis Store.

The Type II recall by RedeCan Pharm—a small producer based in Fenwick, Ont.—involves 7,400 bottles of its 3.5 grams “B.E.C.” product.

The move “allow(s) us to conduct a thorough examination and testing,” read a RedeCan statement. “All testing will be conducted by an independent third party to understand at what point in the process moisture could have been introduced and mould could have grown.”

Type II recalls apply to products that can cause temporary adverse health consequences, but where the likelihood of serious health consequences is low.

3. An East Asian country with some of the most-stringent penalties for recreational pot consumption has now become the region’s first to legalize its medical use.

South Korea is the latest nation to sanction medical cannabis and is the first in the region to make the move.

The country’s national assembly amended its narcotics management laws Friday to allow for non-hallucinogenic doses of medical marijuana. That change is aimed at treatment for epilepsy and other specific disorders where early research suggests marijuana can ease symptoms.

That medical use will be strictly controlled by a Korean government body even after patients receive prescriptions from their doctors.

South Korea will continue to ban recreational cannabis use.

4. The legalization of cannabis has shifted income from Canada’s criminal lawyers to its corporate firms.

This year alone the cannabis industry has announced 27 major deals worth US$10.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, it has raised US$2.65 billion through share offerings.

From those large transactions to much smaller ones, the industry has relied on corporate law firms to lead them through the morass of  paperwork involved with winning private backing, launching IPOs and meeting government regulations.

Other corporate firms have focused on bringing their existing clientele up to speed on how legalization impacts their businesses, including crafting rules around employee cannabis use.

5. A study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry finds that adolescents who stop using marijuana for as little as a week improve their verbal learning but also their memory.

Researchers recruited 88 cannabis-using subjects, ages 16 to 25 for the study. Some agreed to give up their consumption for a month, while the control group continued to smoke or otherwise use marijuana. All provided blood samples for screening through the study.

While there was no noticeable difference in attention scores between the two groups, memory scores of the abstainers improved; the users saw no improvement.

The findings support concerns about the impact of marijuana on teen learning, but also, say researchers, point to how quickly those negative effects can be reversed.