Canadian Cannabis

In this episode of Canadian Cannabis, Damian visits two gigantic weed factories in Ontario to check out what kind of bud the government has legally authorized. He also chats with pot activists throughout British Columbia to get their take on the new licensed producer system. And, lastly, we visited a private pot grower who has a medical grow license, but is being squeezed out by Canada's new medical marijuana program: the MMPR.

In this episode of Canadian Cannabis, Damian checks out Jim's Weeds, a no-holds-barred compassion club in Vancouver that was recently raided by the police. That's where Damian got his first taste of Phoenix Tears; an extract designed especially for cancer patients.

In this episode, we visit with young and old medical marijuana patients in Vancouver and Toronto to chat about how they're unable to receive affordable access to the types of cannabis medications that relieve their very serious symptoms. We also take a few of our new friends to Mega Ill, Canada's one-and-only medical-marijuana-infused pizza parlor.

In the latest episode of our Canadian Cannabis series, we take a look at how Canada is missing out on an economic windfall by continuing down a path of restrictive marijuana policies.

Cannabis in Canada is still widely illegal. With a new government entering parliament in 2016, the odds of legalization, further criminalization or decriminalization of marijuana coming to fruition are still to be determined. But despite that, black market growers and grey market marijuana dispensaries are more prevalent than ever. And the sometimes dangerous, and legally dubious process of manufacturing weed oils and other concentrates is rising with growers investing tens of thousands of dollars to make sheets of potent pot wax.

Toronto is in the middle of a grey market, marijuana dispensary boom. Since Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015, weed entrepreneurs have been illegally opening up shop all over the city. Even though there's no guarantee that Trudeau's plan for legal marijuana will include storefront businesses, these operations are opening almost daily. Not only do these shops sell weed, more and more customers are coming through the doors of their local dispensary looking for marijuana edibles. While these stores insist they're providing a medical need to cannabis patients, can a weed soda or a chronic cookie really be considered medicinal? VICE host and medical marijuana patient Damian Abraham does the tough job of trying to figure that out.

In this episode, VICE's weed expert Damian Abraham and Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! smoke their way through Vancouver's weed scene while discussing touring, music, and how high they can possibly get.