There are concerns Nova Scotia isn't moving fast enough to deal with new standards regulating the legal sale of marijuana, and it could mean other provinces get a leg up. Nova Scotia's plans to get into the pot business are eerily reminiscent of a late-20th century, would-be-pusher - distinguished by stealth and uncertainty. No one knows what, if anything, the province has done to prepare for July 2018, when cannabis is legal in Canada, and the province's vague statements are neither illuminating nor reassuring.

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Canada is edging closer to the July 2018 target date for the legalization of marijuana in a haze of political smoke.

With every new development, the gap between the political narrative attending the initiative and its actual implementation is harder to bridge.

Take the federal government's talking points. They have greatly evolved since Justin Trudeau was campaigning on university campuses in the last election campaign. Logic has not always benefited from that evolution.

To hear the prime minister these days, the point of the policy is to make it harder for minors to buy marijuana. Clearly, Canada is making its peace with marijuana the better to fight it.

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After the RCMP raided three local medicinal marijuana dispensaries last week, one store has already re-opened.

Maritime Medicinal, one of the three Bible Hill dispensaries, reopened its Main Street location immediately after officers cleared out Friday afternoon.

"We were open right after they left," said Ashley Brown of Maritime Medicinal. "There were some charges laid against an individual who worked at the store, however, we support medical cannabis and we decided we would reopen to try and accommodate our patients. We have patients that require our services."

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RCMP officers raided three medical marijuana dispensaries in Bible Hill Friday afternoon.

Sgt. Duane Cooper told the Truro Daily News that search warrants were executed at about 3 p.m. at Re-Leaf Medical Dispensary, 197 Pictou Rd., Community Compassion Centre, 274 Pictou Rd., and at the Maritime Medicinal Centre, 27 Main Street.

"As we speak we're still in the process of executing the search warrants," said Cooper, who added the investigations are continuing and more information would be forthcoming when those tasks are complete.

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Four arrested by officers in Cole Harbour dispensary

One day after Tasty Budds reopened its five Nova Scotia locations following police raids last week, one of them has again been searched by police.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Clarke confirmed to Metro Tuesday afternoon that police searched the Tasty Budds location in Cole Harbour.

"We arrested four people, one of whom will be in court tomorrow morning in Dartmouth," Clarke said.

Charges are expected against that one person, and Clarke said police will be naming them on Wednesday.

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Supporters of marijuana advocate protest outside Amherst courthouse

Support for a Cumberland County man charged with marijuana and firearm offences showed up early Monday for his first court appearance since being arrested almost a week ago.

Fifty-two year old Daren Wayne McCormick was arrested and charged Aug, 23, after Cumberland RCMP and a street crime unit conducted a search at a Northport home. Ten handguns, a shotgun, drug paraphernalia and what police descried as a large number of marijuana plants were removed from the home.

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'Alleged illegal activity' only at one location

All five Tasty Budds medical marijuana dispensaries in Nova Scotia have reopened following raids last week, and allegations of illegal activity that the chain's owner says were confined to just one location.

Police searched four homes and five Tasty Budds dispensaries last week after an eight-month investigation, and laid charges against nine people, including Tasty Budds president Mal McMeekin.

Police said those searches turned up a loaded handgun, a shotgun, cocaine, marijuana, shatter, hash, oil, edibles, and large amounts of cash. One man, 31-year-old Jarrett Randall Shrum of Bedford, was charged with trafficking cocaine, plus seven firearms charges including possession of a firearm obtained by crime and tampering with a firearm's serial number.

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Tasty Budds president Mal McMeekin is "very sorry" about alleged illegal activities that police say were occuring at his company's storefronts.

"We want to be very clear that the alleged illegal activity was occuring at one Tasty Budds location (Sackville Location)," reads a written statement sent to The Chronicle Herald and attributed to Mal McMeekin.

"This only came to our attention through the recent police activity and investigation. This is a gross violation of our code of conduct, our ethics, and everything that Tasty Budds stands for."

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A smoking syllabus to becoming the most productive pothead on campus.

Harvard studies suggest cannabis enhances cognitive function. German studies conclude micro-dosing weed is an effective ADHD treatment. And with Canada's impending marijuana legalization, the "lazy stoner" stereotype is washing away, making room for the high-functioning user to spark up. Carefully chosen MMJ strains, dosage and smoke methods just might be your path to becoming most productive pothead on campus.

Pre-class anxiety? Live every week like it's shark week with Great White Shark: This stimulating sativa offers an energizing high that melts away the anxiety in a room full of tutorial strangers. Great White's plant parents obliterate depression, stress and pain, so you can stay relaxed yet inspired while scoring full participation marks. Ren, a second-year NSCAD student with a nervous tummy, attributes her stellar grades to this potent strain.

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Event aims to break stigma around overdose and drug use

About 75 Cape Bretoners gathered at Wentworth Park Bandshell on Thursday to pay tribute to loved ones who died by drug overdose or who are struggling with addiction.

Tears flowed and people could be heard quietly sobbing and sniffing during the Overdose Awareness Day event, especially when the names of people who died of drug overdoses were being called out.

Antoinette Murphy, who lost her son to an overdose five months ago, was there with her three daughters and a granddaughter.

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Overdose awareness event equal parts memorial and educational

The Ally Centre of Cape Breton is hosting an event for International Overdose Awareness Day to remember those lost to overdose and bring awareness to the opioid crisis on the island.

"Each year we try to make an impact, somehow, to draw attention to overdose and the effect it's having on our communities," explained Christine Porter, executive director of the Ally Centre.

From 2008-2016, there have been 169 overdose deaths in CapeBreton.

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Medicinal marijuana dispensary in Stellarton offers variety of products

This isn't your grandma's home remedy.

Although maybe it is - maybe your grandma is totally on board with medical marijuana taking away the aches and pains that can come with old age.

"If you eat that ice cream, you're going to feel very, very relaxed. We've got people in their 80s coming in here," said Hank Merchant, chief executive officer of HBB Medical - a medicinal pot dispensary in Stellarton that opened several weeks ago.

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Staff suggest HRM consider how to handle legalization

Halifax is starting to think about how legal marijuana will roll out in the municipality.

In a staff report coming to regional council's meeting on Tuesday, staff recommend starting the process to consider amending land-use bylaws to determine the best places for marijuana-production facilities and dispensaries in the municipality ahead of next summer's promised legalization.

The federal government introduced legislation to legalize marijuana this spring. The bill passed first and second reading, and was referred to committee for further debate. The government intends to bring the law into effect no later than July 2018.

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Legal pot was inevitable the moment society became inexorably bound to runaway technology.

Friday, with a digital lifeline severed, pasty-faced, disoriented humans stumbled out of the disrupted dichotomy - separate connection - to join other disoriented, confused survivors wandering, lost and untethered, in the foreign world of a decade back.

Sitting stoned alone in your backyard would clearly be a healthier psychological response. When everything depends on one thing, and that one thing is undependable, dupable and destructible, there needs to be a fallback, and "who gives a crap" is a viable option.

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Some so-called experts say the human brain keeps growing until age 25 and a CTV poll found a majority of people said the legal age for marijuana should be 21 or 25

This does not make sense to me. In Canada, you can join the military at 18, get a driver's licence at 16 and vote at 18.

A lot of kids 18 and younger are smoking marijuana. Bought legally, it will be safer than from the black market. Government, instead of organized crime, should be profiting from the sale of cannabis. Drug stores are the best place to sell marijuana and the legal age should be 18.

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Victoria County's first and only medical marijuana dispensary opened in June. It is listed with the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stocks and has a CRA business number, a bank account and 25 clients. The RCMP are well aware of it. However, dispensaries are illegal in Canada. So how does it still exist? The Standard's Carolyn Barber explores the making og a gray area where some choose to roll the dice.

Our story about the medical marijuana (cannabis) dispensary that opened in June in Bay St. Lawrence began as a typical business profile. On July 16, The Standard's Carolyn Barber interviewed sole proprietor and operator Kevin Mackinnon, his wife Amy, and daughter Danielle at their dispensary located on Buchanan Lane in the northern Cape Breton village. Some basic background research on medical marijuana dispensaries generated further questions. That's when it became more than a profile.

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Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS) is not in favour of the proposed Federal Government's cannabis legalization legislation.

"Nova Scotia's Cannabis Legalization Working Group must take into consideration multi-family unit dwellings' high-density living environment when writing cannabis regulations," says IPOANS president Jeremy Jackson. Adding "The current legislation, as is, fails to protect tenants' right to peaceful enjoyment of their homes, a right guaranteed under the Nova Scotia Residential Tenancy Act."

According to Statistics Canada's 2011 National Household Survey, there are 111,000 renter households in Nova Scotia. Taking into account an average 1.5 occupancy factor per renter household, marijuana use and cultivation places 166,000 Nova Scotians' health and safety in jeopardy.

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If last week's meeting of provincial premiers is any indication, the issue that most unites Canadian provinces in the summer of 2017 is the timing of the introduction of legalized marijuana.

Canadians should be forgiven for thinking that the premiers face more daunting and serious problems - starting with the state of provincial health care systems. A study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund concludes Canada's health care system ranks in the bottom three in a group of 11 wealthy countries.

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The association representing Nova Scotia's apartment building owners is speaking out against the federal government's proposed cannabis legalization legislation.

In a media release issued on Monday, the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS) expressed concerns about secondhand marijuana smoke.

The release said the association's members have heard from tenants with respiratory conditions, young families, seniors and non-smoking residents who've expressed concerns about "inhaling drifting (second hand) marijuana smoke and drifting airborne toxins from marijuana plant cultivation."

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"Go slow, take your time," is the excellent advice Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was given last year on his plan to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada. The speaker was none other than Anne McLellan, leader of the federal government's task force on the issue, and her message was do your homework and get the job right the first time around.

The caution from this former Liberal deputy prime minister was wise. It seems even more urgent now after nine Canadian premiers told the prime minister last week they have so many concerns about his promise to legalize recreational pot starting July 1, 2018 that they may ask him to postpone the change.

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