case surrounding personal production rights have enormous implications for patients, the MMPR and even recreational legalization!!
and what Ive been sayin
Marijuana in Canada is a hot topic of late. Since the autumn election of a Liberal government guaranteeing legalization, it’s a subject making headlines on a regular basis.
One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first acts was to issue a mandate letter instructing the Minister of Justice to work “with the Ministers of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and Health, create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of marijuana”. Furthermore he recently appointed Bill Blair, former chief of Toronto Police and current Member of Parliament for the Scarborough Southwest riding, as the person in charge of investigating the legalization process. The Speech from the Throne in December reiterated the government's intentions to legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana.”
Parliament is not yet in session; there is no budget; the Loonie and oil prices have plummeted; and there are other election promises to keep. Given all that, it’s no surprise that beyond the appointment of Bill Blair there has been little heard from the federal government regarding plans or a timeline for marijuana legalization. That’s no surprise as there is a lot of conjecture from experts regarding the length of time legalization could entail.
The Current Situation on the Ground
To fill the void there have been a lot of individuals weighing in with how they’d like to see legalization realized. Provincial politicians and union leaders have been very vocal in their support of recreational marijuana being sold through existing government-run liquor stores. This has caused some debate as to how a retail model for recreational marijuana should be developed in Canada.
There has also been a large increase in the number of dispensaries across Canada. Primarily in Toronto where they’ve been sprouting up like ‘weeds’. Outside of Canada’s largest city, dispensaries have been a mainstay of the urban landscape in Vancouver for a long time now. So much so that the City of Vancouver decided to step in and regulate them with a dispensary licensing process.
Dispensaries are doing great business. Although they ostensibly sell only to medical patients, it is more than clear that many of these storefronts – especially those that have opened up most recently – are aiming to capitalize on the pending legalization by getting in early, accepting patients that don’t always meet patient requirements and generating revenue while there is a lack of regulation from local authorities waiting for word from on high.
This was and is generally the situation on the ground while everyone is waiting for the federal government to make headway. However the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association (CMCIA) wouldn’t wait any longer and recently asked the federal government to address the proliferation of illegal marijuana dispensaries in Canada, "in order to protect public health and public safety." Pockets of the greed whores..
This is unsurprising given that the CMCIA is an association representing the Licensed Producers (LPs) that are approved to produce medical marijuana for Canadians with valid prescriptions under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). The MMPR came into effect on April 1st, 2014 and is supposed to be the only manner in which patients can legally access their cannabis medicine.
And no, it’s not a typo, they spelled it with an ‘h’.
The LPs and the MMPR
These LPs are the few companies that have managed to pass the rigorous and ever changing demands of the Health Canada LP application procedure – an expensive and time-consuming process that has benefited 27 companies to this point. These companies have until recently been permitted to provide only dried marijuana to patients. Which has been proven since to poison people.
If the injunction resolves with patients not allowed to grow, then personal recreational growing is certainly unlikely. Conversely if the decision alters the MMPR to allow patients to grow, Canada could take heed and follow regulations that have been developed south of the border. If the injunction goes in favour of the plaintiffs, patients and designated growers will be allowed to produce marijuana – albeit most likely at much lower plant numbers – and dispensaries could continue to have ready and available access to the wide variety of products they currently offer.
However a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in June 2015 (R v Smith) allowed patients to access marijuana extracts and subsequently four companies have been licensed to provide oil products to patients. So far these oils are prohibitively expensive and must meet specific Health Canada guidelines regarding THC concentration and viscosity at room temperature. A far cry from the virtual cornucopia of concentrate types offered at most dispensaries.
Given all the hoops the LPs have had to jump through and the limitations they face (people really like concentrates), it’s no surprise to hear they’re frustrated with dispensaries. Especially given that a recent Georgia Straight story provided a rough estimate indicating that, “Vancouver’s dispensaries likely sell more in one month (1,110 to 3,350 kilograms) than the entire country’s sanctioned LPs sell in three months.”
There are approximately 40,000 MMPR patients being served by the LP companies and it’s no question that LPs would love to see that number jump significantly. But they believe the dispensaries are undercutting them by offering products to the LPs’ customer base that they themselves are legally prohibited from producing and by preempting potential patients from seeking an MMPR prescription. There are simply more options, easier access, and first-hand information at the local dispensary. Dispensaries have a competitive advantage.
But where do these ‘grey market’ dispensaries source their product?
The MMAR and Designated Growers
Before the MMPR there was the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) legislation. Under this program patients were provided with an Authorization To Possess (ATP) license and could source their marijuana from Health Canada, grow their own, or designate someone as their grower.
People that became designated growers for themselves and one other (to a maximum of two people total) were allowed to grow and store a specific number of plants and marijuana respectively. The number of plants was predicated on the patient’s prescription – Health Canada’s guideline indicated that a 5g/day prescription allowed up to 25 plants on site. So depending on the daily prescription and number of patients, one grower could legally possess quite a few plants.
There were thousands of growers registered under the MMAR scheme producing marijuana in 2014. And I think it’s safe to say that any one person with a few hundred plants is likely producing more than enough medicine. Although the growers must provide their growing and storage address plus meet inspection requirements, without a sufficient number of auditors for these designated growers who’s to say they weren’t producing more than their legal limit?
It’s fairly common knowledge that dispensaries source some, most, or all, of their product from MMAR designated growers. There is little Health Canada can do about this since they designated the number of plants and allowed them to grow. There is little law enforcement can do about this since they likely don’t have the manpower to visit every grower and don’t have any evidence growers are exceeding their limit. Further, patients visiting dispensaries are unlikely to face prosecution. The group most at risk for arrest and prosecution is the dispensary operators themselves.
You might ask, why the designated growers are still allowed if the MMPR was designed to replace the MMAR? The LPs under the MMPR are now supposed to be the only legal source of marijuana in Canada.
and what Ive been sayin
Marijuana in Canada is a hot topic of late. Since the autumn election of a Liberal government guaranteeing legalization, it’s a subject making headlines on a regular basis.
One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first acts was to issue a mandate letter instructing the Minister of Justice to work “with the Ministers of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and Health, create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of marijuana”. Furthermore he recently appointed Bill Blair, former chief of Toronto Police and current Member of Parliament for the Scarborough Southwest riding, as the person in charge of investigating the legalization process. The Speech from the Throne in December reiterated the government's intentions to legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana.”
Parliament is not yet in session; there is no budget; the Loonie and oil prices have plummeted; and there are other election promises to keep. Given all that, it’s no surprise that beyond the appointment of Bill Blair there has been little heard from the federal government regarding plans or a timeline for marijuana legalization. That’s no surprise as there is a lot of conjecture from experts regarding the length of time legalization could entail.
The Current Situation on the Ground
To fill the void there have been a lot of individuals weighing in with how they’d like to see legalization realized. Provincial politicians and union leaders have been very vocal in their support of recreational marijuana being sold through existing government-run liquor stores. This has caused some debate as to how a retail model for recreational marijuana should be developed in Canada.
There has also been a large increase in the number of dispensaries across Canada. Primarily in Toronto where they’ve been sprouting up like ‘weeds’. Outside of Canada’s largest city, dispensaries have been a mainstay of the urban landscape in Vancouver for a long time now. So much so that the City of Vancouver decided to step in and regulate them with a dispensary licensing process.
Dispensaries are doing great business. Although they ostensibly sell only to medical patients, it is more than clear that many of these storefronts – especially those that have opened up most recently – are aiming to capitalize on the pending legalization by getting in early, accepting patients that don’t always meet patient requirements and generating revenue while there is a lack of regulation from local authorities waiting for word from on high.
This was and is generally the situation on the ground while everyone is waiting for the federal government to make headway. However the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association (CMCIA) wouldn’t wait any longer and recently asked the federal government to address the proliferation of illegal marijuana dispensaries in Canada, "in order to protect public health and public safety." Pockets of the greed whores..
This is unsurprising given that the CMCIA is an association representing the Licensed Producers (LPs) that are approved to produce medical marijuana for Canadians with valid prescriptions under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). The MMPR came into effect on April 1st, 2014 and is supposed to be the only manner in which patients can legally access their cannabis medicine.
And no, it’s not a typo, they spelled it with an ‘h’.
The LPs and the MMPR
These LPs are the few companies that have managed to pass the rigorous and ever changing demands of the Health Canada LP application procedure – an expensive and time-consuming process that has benefited 27 companies to this point. These companies have until recently been permitted to provide only dried marijuana to patients. Which has been proven since to poison people.
If the injunction resolves with patients not allowed to grow, then personal recreational growing is certainly unlikely. Conversely if the decision alters the MMPR to allow patients to grow, Canada could take heed and follow regulations that have been developed south of the border. If the injunction goes in favour of the plaintiffs, patients and designated growers will be allowed to produce marijuana – albeit most likely at much lower plant numbers – and dispensaries could continue to have ready and available access to the wide variety of products they currently offer.
However a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in June 2015 (R v Smith) allowed patients to access marijuana extracts and subsequently four companies have been licensed to provide oil products to patients. So far these oils are prohibitively expensive and must meet specific Health Canada guidelines regarding THC concentration and viscosity at room temperature. A far cry from the virtual cornucopia of concentrate types offered at most dispensaries.
Given all the hoops the LPs have had to jump through and the limitations they face (people really like concentrates), it’s no surprise to hear they’re frustrated with dispensaries. Especially given that a recent Georgia Straight story provided a rough estimate indicating that, “Vancouver’s dispensaries likely sell more in one month (1,110 to 3,350 kilograms) than the entire country’s sanctioned LPs sell in three months.”
There are approximately 40,000 MMPR patients being served by the LP companies and it’s no question that LPs would love to see that number jump significantly. But they believe the dispensaries are undercutting them by offering products to the LPs’ customer base that they themselves are legally prohibited from producing and by preempting potential patients from seeking an MMPR prescription. There are simply more options, easier access, and first-hand information at the local dispensary. Dispensaries have a competitive advantage.
But where do these ‘grey market’ dispensaries source their product?
The MMAR and Designated Growers
Before the MMPR there was the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) legislation. Under this program patients were provided with an Authorization To Possess (ATP) license and could source their marijuana from Health Canada, grow their own, or designate someone as their grower.
People that became designated growers for themselves and one other (to a maximum of two people total) were allowed to grow and store a specific number of plants and marijuana respectively. The number of plants was predicated on the patient’s prescription – Health Canada’s guideline indicated that a 5g/day prescription allowed up to 25 plants on site. So depending on the daily prescription and number of patients, one grower could legally possess quite a few plants.
There were thousands of growers registered under the MMAR scheme producing marijuana in 2014. And I think it’s safe to say that any one person with a few hundred plants is likely producing more than enough medicine. Although the growers must provide their growing and storage address plus meet inspection requirements, without a sufficient number of auditors for these designated growers who’s to say they weren’t producing more than their legal limit?
It’s fairly common knowledge that dispensaries source some, most, or all, of their product from MMAR designated growers. There is little Health Canada can do about this since they designated the number of plants and allowed them to grow. There is little law enforcement can do about this since they likely don’t have the manpower to visit every grower and don’t have any evidence growers are exceeding their limit. Further, patients visiting dispensaries are unlikely to face prosecution. The group most at risk for arrest and prosecution is the dispensary operators themselves.
You might ask, why the designated growers are still allowed if the MMPR was designed to replace the MMAR? The LPs under the MMPR are now supposed to be the only legal source of marijuana in Canada.