NICHE this Week: 5 Things You Need to Know

As you kick off the week, here are five things making news in the cannabis industry:

  • New Blog: Creating a Path Forward for Indigenous Communities; While there are a number of questions and concerns on policy, process, and participation, it’s clear that Indigenous communities must be given the opportunity to fully participate in Canada’s cannabis industry.
     
  • The federal government introduced Bill C-93 on Friday to grant fast, free pardons for those convicted of cannabis possession, but not expungement. As the CBC reports, Minister Goodale says expungements are the option when a law is deemed unconstitutional and should never have been on the books. But, critics say it won’t be enough to right decades of problems caused by cannabis criminalization.
     
  • Research News: The NHL Alumni Association announced that it will be partnering with Canopy Growth for a cannabis health research initiative. It will involve about 100 former players to explore whether cannabinoids might help to wean former players off of addictive opioids.
     
  • “We’re pleased to see that Alberta is the most developed market in Canada so far.” – The legal cannabis industry has recorded more than $150 million in retail sales with Alberta leading the way.
     
  • Food for Thought: The medicinal properties of cannabis are usually attributed to CBD. But, as Civilized reports, that may not be the case though, as new research suggests the common assumptions about THC and CBD could be wrong.