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Recreational cannabis is now legal and news only continues to gain traction! We filter through the volume of stories for five articles with direct or indirect impact on investors.

1. Canadians remain divided in their approval of cannabis, according to a new poll.

The survey by Forum Research suggests 52% of Canadians approve of legalized marijuana. That figure is virtually unchanged from 2016—well before the federal government introduced the historic legislation.

In this week’s poll, 41% of respondents said they disapproved of legalization.

Roughly 74% of respondents under age 34 firmly approve of cannabis legalization. A high level of support is also present among Canada’s wealthiest citizens (65%) and residents of B.C. and Atlantic Canada (60%).

2. While the federal government is prepared to grant Canadians amnesty for simple-possession convictions related to pot, a senior U.S. border official warns their entry may still be blocked.

“Really, we don’t recognize the Canadian amnesty.” Todd Owen, the assistant commissioner of field operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told reporters on a recent teleconference. “If you’ve been the subject of a violation of U.S. laws, that will still make you inadmissible to our country.”

Still, the U.S. is taking a different approach to Canadians working in the country’s new and legal marijuana industry.

“If a Canadian is working in the legalized business and coming to the U.S. for a different intent — they’re coming to go shopping or do some other recreational activity — they could be found admissible,” said Owen.

3. Canadian chefs and food producers are already experimenting with cannabis oil in a rush to get ready for next year’s legal “edibles” market.

Vancouver chef Travis Petersen is among several restauranteurs and food companies quietly testing and serving marijuana-infused meals to invited guests. The goal is to perfect recipes that for now must remain off the table.

The sale of those edibles is still illegal—even with today’s legalization of recreational pot. But the federal government plans to open up the market to their sale as early as next fall.

4. Environmentalists are warning Canadians about the high energy costs associated with large-scale cannabis production.

Werner Antweiler, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, has studied the environmental costs of pot production. He estimates that for every kilogram of cannabis produced, about 4.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide are added to the atmosphere. A single marijuana plant, experts say, can consume up to 23 litres of water per day.

Fuelling that energy use and pollution are, among other things, the high-intensity lamps that indoor cannabis production relies on to grow the plants.

In Canada, energy use also gets poured into fans, air conditioners, heaters and humidifiers.

A 2012 U.S. study found that cannabis production was responsible for 3% of California’s total electricity use. That equals the energy consumption of about one million homes in the state.

5. A threatened Canada Post strike could all but cancel next-day delivery of cannabis from online stores in several provinces.

While Canada Post says it now has the systems in place to safely deliver thousands of cannabis orders made through provincial online stores, rotating strikes by its carrier—possibly as early as next week—would considerably slow those orders.

The union representing 50,000 Canada Post employees says rotating strikes will begin Monday if it can’t reach agreements with management for both its urban and rural carriers.

Those workers have been in a legal strike position since late September 2018.