Seeking advice - should I register to grow my under new ACMPR???

Hi everyone, and thanks for reading. I'll try to be as brief as possible while providing all the relevant information:

I live in a province that is not weed friendly and signing doctors are not accessible. I own my own home. I have been a lifelong recreational user, but a couple of years ago I developed health issues for which I found marijuana to be much more effective at managing (with less side effects) than pharmaceuticals. At that time, the MMPR was in play, but I did not see any benefit whatsoever in participating in that program.....I wasn't going to to pay $350 for a Skype doctor just to get a prescription to overpay greedy large companies for sub-par medicine. Instead, I took matters into my own hands, took a calculated risk and began growing my own medicine.....I have now been growing for almost a year and a half, and have a few harvests of quality meds under my belt.

Despite the risk being fairly small in my mind, the risk is not zero, and I live in a fairly anti-MJ province and area. I still get nervous and sometimes worry. I worry about my career, about affording legal bills in the event of a BS bust, etc. But now, with the Allard case and the new ACMPR, things have again changed. Ideally, I would now like to get fully legal in order to protect myself, but given my situation I have some questions and not sure if anyone here has the answers.

My main question is if I am putting myself at risk (and how much risk) by getting a prescription from a doctor, and filing an application with HC to grow my own at home while I currently have plants growing in my house. I've put a lot of hard work and time into my current setup and strains I have been working with, and would not want to shut everything down to wait to hear back on approval. Does anyone know what the procedure will look like? Will there be any inspections to see where it will be grown or stored? Will police be notified? (I know that HC will provide info to the police and respond to inquiries, but not sure if HC would contact the police in any way due to an application?) Will anyone be poking around my house?

I'd love some insight from some more knowledgable/experienced with the system than I. Is getting legal while currently growing too risky? Should I just continue flying under the radar as I currently am and hope for the best, or hope legalization includes the right for home production?

Any and all info and suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Not a problem. Continue to be discreet with your grow. Once you find a doctor who will sign just send it away and you will get your license mailed to you. You wont be inspected.

Healths Angels wont notify there foot soldiers, even when the police call HC they cant speak about you name,age,gender...just if the address is in there system. I believe that phone call is now a step to be made before search warrents too.

May I ask what province you are in ?
From what I am seeing Sask is the worse place to find a doc. Skyping out of province is no longer aloud. You can travel to a different province like BC but bring $300+/- every year. I don't see how this is access ? WE are all equal, just some are more equal than others, eh.

jafro daweedhound said:

May I ask what province you are in ?
From what I am seeing Sask is the worse place to find a doc. Skyping out of province is no longer aloud. You can travel to a different province like BC but bring $300+/- every year. I don't see how this is access ? WE are all equal, just some are more equal than others, eh.

Click to expand...

A big thank you to those that read answered my post! I am in Alberta, not a friendly province at all. I don't know of any prescribing docs here, but as far as I know, Skype is still a viable option. I am willing to pay the $300-400 for peace of mind, as long as I'm not putting myself at risk. I only have 5 plants (keeping under 6 due to Harper's BS mandatory minimums), so getting a higher plant count with a legal script will provide much more flexibility, let me keep mothers of effective strains and go perpetual. I've been scared to over 5 plants as I'm not willing to risk jail time for producing my own medicine, and though not ideal I've been able to keep myself from running out with only 5 plants.

No... registering just puts you in the spot light.
steer clear of the feds by growing your own and..don't sell and all will be good!

NorthernNed said:

I still get nervous and sometimes worry. I worry about my career, about affording legal bills in the event of a BS bust, etc.

Click to expand...

NorthernNed said:

I'm not willing to risk jail time for producing my own medicine, and though not ideal I've been able to keep myself from running out with only 5 plants.

Click to expand...

If you want to grow more and not worry about those things than yes get the license.

jafro daweedhound said:

May I ask what province you are in ?
From what I am seeing Sask is the worse place to find a doc. Skyping out of province is no longer aloud. You can travel to a different province like BC but bring $300+/- every year. I don't see how this is access ? WE are all equal, just some are more equal than others, eh.

Click to expand...

I don't get how Health Canada would know the difference. Wouldn't the paper work be the same whether you see the Dr. in person or Skype? Hope you don't have to actually live in the same province as the signing Dr. cause that would really suck ass. Finding a cannabis friendly Dr. around Regina is proving to be difficult so far.

Doctors not signing is a barrier to access....not advising, however, in light of the difficulties finding supportive doctors, patients rule.

It seems barriers still exist and..... new one's with respect to the 5 gram and under prescriptions
intended to make it impossible to treat oneself.

R.Raider said:

I don't get how Health Canada would know the difference. Wouldn't the paper work be the same whether you see the Dr. in person or Skype? Hope you don't have to actually live in the same province as the signing Dr. cause that would really suck ass. Finding a cannabis friendly Dr. around Regina is proving to be difficult so far.

Click to expand...

If done by skype the doc and patient must be in the same province as doctors are licensed to practice in a province. A doc in BC may not sign someone's paper work from regina by skype as the doctor is not licenced to practice in Sask.
If you go to BC the doctor can sign you no problem + $$$$ and you are good to go.
It is a barrier to access, BC and Ontario are two different worlds compared to the parries. Most people still have no access here unless you travel to some place herb friendly a thousand kms away.

jafro daweedhound said:

If done by skype the doc and patient must be in the same province as doctors are licensed to practice in a province. A doc in BC may not sign someone's paper work from regina by skype as the doctor is not licenced to practice in Sask.
If you go to BC the doctor can sign you no problem + $$$$ and you are good to go.

Click to expand...

That can't be right. I get the part about patients needing to be in same province as the doctor but I would think that would mean actually living in the same province(which would really, really suck). HC only receives the paperwork after a doctor signs, they don't actually know if a patient is in their office or not.

I live in sask and I have been told in need to physically go to the office to see the doc in person if I am from out of province. Skype is not accepted. There are no clinics in Sask. BC is all I have found.

jafro daweedhound said:

I live in sask and I have been told in need to physically go to the office to see the doc in person if I am from out of province. Skype is not accepted. There are no clinics in Sask. BC is all I have found.

Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity told by who?

If you can't do skype than visiting an out of province doctor won't help you either.

Do No Harm Clinic - they said I would need to come there in person and skype would not work (????)
I am not planning on going 1500kms to get a signature. Local doctors are less than receptive to cannabis. They seem more apt to have a jar of leaches.

jafro daweedhound said:

Do No Harm Clinic - they said I would need to come there in person and skype would not work (????)
I am not planning on going 1500kms to get a signature. Local doctors are less than receptive to cannabis. They seem more apt to have a jar of leaches.

Click to expand...

Wow that is interesting, didn't expect to hear that from Do No Harm.

I'm in the same boat as you, I live in Sask as well and also looking into out of province options due to the difficulty here. I just don't see how an out of province visit and Skype would be any any different as far as the paperwork going to HC concerns.

Either way keep me posted if you find something and I'll do the same for you.

R.Raider said:

Wow that is interesting, didn't expect to hear that from Do No Harm.

I'm in the same boat as you, I live in Sask as well and also looking into out of province options due to the difficulty here. I just don't see how an out of province visit and Skype would be any any different as far as the paperwork going to HC concerns.

Either way keep me posted if you find something and I'll do the same for you.

Click to expand...

This does seem strange i live in manitoba on the manitoba sask border and half of the people in my town doctor in moosemin sask so how the fuck can this type of access blocking tactics work??? You can get a prescription from an out of prov doc so why not cannabis? What's there reasoning?

GrowRock said:

This does seem strange i live in manitoba on the manitoba sask border and half of the people in my town doctor in moosemin sask so how the fuck can this type of access blocking tactics work??? You can get a prescription from an out of prov doc so why not cannabis? What's there reasoning?

Click to expand...

Exactly, great point.

GrowRock said:

This does seem strange i live in manitoba on the manitoba sask border and half of the people in my town doctor in moosemin sask so how the fuck can this type of access blocking tactics work??? You can get a prescription from an out of prov doc so why not cannabis? What's there reasoning?

Click to expand...

it's Government thinking

Any border town could have those interprovincial agreements in place....I can go to bc or ab because I live in the yukon....Creighton/FlinFlon, the Lloydminsters....so let's see how HC is going to wiggle out of that!

R.Raider said:

If you want to grow more and not worry about those things than yes get the license.

Click to expand...

Agreed, i was doing what the o.p was doing. I now have a 12k legal bill to deal with. I had 7 indoor, 6 outdoor and about 20 clones. Since this was my first offence for anything i received 70 hours comm service, $400.00 to charity, 12k legal bill. Crown has agreed to drop all charges, pretty expensive lesson if you ask me. This is in Ontario.