It was more than three years ago when Vancouver police arrested a man after he was seen using multiple bank cards to make withdrawals at an ATM.
A search revealed he was carrying 66 bank cards and $39,200 in cash.
The strange discovery in March 2023, described in an affidavit by an RCMP cyber crime investigator, would set off a chain of events leading to a years-long probe into nationwide illicit online sales of cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The legalization of cannabis in Canada has not had a positive impact on the mental health of users.
In fact, those who smoked pot had a higher chance of being diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, psychosis and addiction, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
The authors of the study say youth and young adults are most at risk of mental harms.
The Cannabis Council of Canada has announced it is suspending its advocacy operation, apparently because its member companies have given up hope that the federal government is prepared to listen to them.
In a letter to Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne that foreshadowed this week’s announcement, outgoing council president Paul McCarthy said the country’s licensed cannabis producers have lost confidence that the government is committed to getting its tax and regulatory policies right.
Decriminalising the possession of cannabis or strictly regulating access to the drug do not appear to drive up usage, but when the drug is sold commercially the number of users increases and more mental health problems are seen, a review has found.
An international team analysed the dramatic shift in policies on cannabis between 2000 and 2025, including how the numbers of people taking the drug, its potency, and rates of psychosis changed after new rules came in.
In places that opened up commercial markets for cannabis, such as the US and Canada, researchers saw more users and increases in drug potency. More people also visited hospital with psychosis and other mental health issues linked to the drug, they found.
Clinicians at Halifax’s IWK Health Centre say more young patients are arriving with severe symptoms tied to high-potency cannabis — and their symptoms are taking much longer to clear, even after they stop using the drug.
Dr. Kyle Godden, an inpatient psychiatrist at the IWK, said youth using high-potency products experience more severe episodes and require longer hospital care.
Godden recalled a young male patient who came into the hospital with severe paranoia, agitation and hallucinations.
Heather Bacchus worried when her 15-year-old son started using marijuana. Randy Jr was a bright, precocious teenager doing well at his school in Minnesota, but like many children his age he experienced ADHD and anxiety.
He had turned to cannabis to quiet what Bacchus called his “overactive brain”. However, she noticed an almost immediate, worrying shift in his mood.
Canadian alcohol sales are dripping lower while the cannabis market is sparking up, driven by shifting consumer behaviour and cost trends.
January retail sales of beer, wine and liquor are down 1.3 per cent year over year, new Statistics Canada data show. Cannabis retail sales climbed 6.4 per cent over the same period.
Almost seven years ago, the New York Times invited me to speak to its editorial board about the dangers of legalising marijuana. I was excited to get the chance to tell this key institution of American life what I — and many other researchers — knew to be true: that legalising and commercialising the drug would be a public health disaster. Suffice to say, I didn’t receive much support.
That is why this week’s turn of events is so significant. On Monday, the paper published an editorial entitled: “It’s time for America to admit it has a weed problem.” It argued that marijuana’s harms are more serious than commonly acknowledged, and that commercialisation and social normalisation are amplifying them.
Researchers believe increasing use of cannabis may be contributing to a rise in new cases of schizophrenia and related disorders at younger ages.
A new analysis of birth cohorts in the Canadian province of Ontario has found a striking rise in the incidence of psychotic disorders among young people, a finding that its authors said could reflect teens’ increasing use of substances like cannabis, stimulants and hallucinogens.
The study, published on Monday in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that the rate of new diagnoses of psychotic disorders among people ages 14 to 20 increased by 60 percent between 1997 and 2023, while new diagnoses at older ages plateaued or declined.
In next November’s elections, residents of Massachusetts will have the opportunity to do something strange and unprecedented: re-ban marijuana. The state legalized recreational pot in 2016. But last week, organizers submitted the requisite 74,000 signatures to place on the ballot an initiative that would end the legal sale of the drug without reimposing penalties for mere possession.
When Canada legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, Ontario made a promise — to consumers, to communities, and to small business owners who invested their lives and savings into the new sector. That promise was simple: the government would regulate the market, enforce the law, and replace the illegal cannabis trade with a safe, transparent, and accountable system.
Ever get the feeling the whole of our “political class” is on the take.
The dream of legal weed was supposed to mint millionaires.
Instead, it’s creating bankruptcies.
Across the US, cannabis companies are collapsing under impossible taxes, plunging prices and brutal red tape.
Even celebrities once hyped by the ‘green rush’ – from Jay-Z to Whoopi Goldberg – have seen their plans go up in smoke.
On November 5, 2022, 18-year-old Ciara Hare, along with two friends aged 22 and 18, were killed when a speeding driver under the influence of marijuana struck their vehicle on the Southern State Parkway near Exit 32 in Long Island, New York. The 29-year-old driver had been traveling approximately 93 mph and weaving through traffic while high on cannabis before colliding with the victims’ car.
This tragic case reflects a broader and deeply troubling pattern nationwide.
High-on-pot drivers are contributing to more highway accident deaths.
How much social and public-health damage will Americans suffer before doing a U-turn on marijuana promotion? A new study finds that more than 40% of drivers who died in car accidents in one U.S. county over the last six years had elevated levels of the drug in their blood.
Researchers from Wright State University analyzed driver autopsy results from car crashes in Montgomery County, Ohio, between January 2019 and September 2024. More than four in 10 tested positive for pot’s psychoactive ingredient THC, with an average level of 30.7 nanograms. That’s more than six times the level most states use to define impairment.
More than $122 million worth of marijuana has been seized from illegal grow-op on a First Nations reserve in Eastern Ontario that was allegedly being operated by an organized criminal network.
The OPP says three firearms were also seized during a six-month investigation – and 10 people have been charged, six of whom are not members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory community.
