For long-term success, cannabis companies need to adopt technology as a critical capability.

Entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry are moving at warp speed to get their businesses up and running in time for the Canadian government’s legalization of adult-use cannabis, creating billions of dollars of value in the process. Most companies however, have failed to implement appropriate technology strategies during this boom, putting much of that equity at risk.

Keynote speaker at a health unit luncheon told companies there's no good test for impairment yet.

The Windsor Essex County Health Unit wants businesses to be prepared for the legalization of recreational marijuana.

It brought in a speaker Wednesday to speak to companies over the lunch hour.

"It's a timely and relevant topic that has implications for just about every workplace and the scenarios will be different everywhere depending on the kind of work," said Neil Mackenzie, manager of chronic disease and injury prevention with the health unit.

Already on the radar

Centerline was one of the companies attending and it says this is already on its radar.

Long gone are the days of lighting up whatever bud you scored from a friend.

As Canada sloughs off its prohibition skin, cannabis consumers are adopting higher standards for products they’re ingesting. Things like mould and pesticides, which compromise product quality and health, are no longer going to be tolerated in a fully legal landscape, and testing demands for these contaminants is skyrocketing.

Prelegalization medical users and licensed producers (LPs) are already acclimated to Health Canada’s testing standards, but a large portion of the recreational community is only just starting to understand the process that pot undergoes before deemed fit for consumption.

Senate recommended allowing provinces to decide whether to allow cannabis growing at home.

The Manitoba government is holding firm on its refusal to allow people to grow their own marijuana when it becomes legal, despite the federal government saying homegrowing should be allowed.

The province maintains that regulations for growing cannabis at home fall within its jurisdiction.

The London-based medical grade cannabis producer is looking to expand production.

London's only medical grade cannabis producer, INDIVA has announced plans to expand, adding 30,000 square feet of space and dozens of jobs to its current 10,000 square foot growing and production facility. 

The announcement was made at an open house Wednesday at the company's high security facility in London's south-end. 

"We're in for a lot of growth, no puns intended," INDIVA co-founder, president and CEO Neil Marrotta said Wednesday. "We're up to 25 employees now, I think we'll get close to 50 by the end of the year." 

Marrotta said that INDIVA would also increase its production.

Western’s education faculty is getting nearly $100,000 from Ottawa to develop tools for schooling teens on pot.

The Public Health Agency of Canada on Wednesday announced $223,000 for three organizations to develop public education tools and resources for public health professionals, educators and other stakeholders.

Western will get $99,000 to work on school-based interventions aimed at promoting positive youth development and preventing cannabis use and substance abuse by young people.

“This investment allows us to use evidence-based research to ensure critical key messages are reaching those adults who interact with youth daily,” Claire Crooks, the education professor who heads Western’s Centre for School Mental Health, said in a release.

Trudeau government takes on provinces over right to ban home cultivation of marijuana.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is disrespecting "the spirit of federalism" by refusing to affirm the provinces' right to ban people from growing their own pot, says Quebec's Canada relations minister. 

The federal government on Wednesday rejected several Senate changes to its cannabis legalization bill, setting the stage for a possible showdown between the Senate and the House of Commons.

Quebec, Manitoba and Nunavut all want to forbid residents from growing recreational marijuana at home once cannabis is legalized federally.

In 1961, a NASA engineer figured out that in the late 70s, the solar system would be aligned in a way what would allow a spacecraft to visit all of the outer planets using gravity assists, slingshotting its way to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. This alignment only happens every 175 years, and thanks to bureaucratic stonewalling they almost missed their chance. But creative (and somewhat sneaky) work by the NASA scientists led to the Voyager program, with Voyager 2 launching in 1977, and completing the Grand Tour in 1989 with a flyby of Neptune.

Vic Neufeld says advertising is the biggest barrier for his company going forward.

As the bill that will introduce the legalization of cannabis in Canada gets noodled around in Ottawa, one marijuana mogul said there's only one major barrier he's watching.

"One very simple one, and that's advertising."

Vic Neufeld is the CEO of Aphria — one of Canada's largest cannabis producers with facilities located in Leamington, Ont. His company has been expanding its medicinal and recreational cannabis production abilities, so he's been watching closely as Bill C-45 makes its way through the Senate and back to the House. 

"Fortunately we're versed in it, but we're just going to see more of it," says Halifax deputy fire chief.

Halifax's deputy fire chief says the department is looking ahead to the legalization of marijuana and anticipating an increased risk of fires from people growing and smoking pot at home.

Deputy fire chief Roy Hollett told CBC's Information Morning that the department has already dealt with fires that have been caused by illegal growing operations.

"Fortunately we're versed in it, but we're just going to see more of it," he said.

In its review of federal marijuana legislation, the Canadian Senate suggested a number of amendments, including that the federal government grant provinces the authority to ban home cultivation of marijuana.