Health Canada’s Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations has replaced its former Marihuana for Medical Access Regulations, under which patients cleared by Health Canada to use medicinal marijuana could produce their own. Among the changes are provisions that give doctors the ability to prescribe medicinal marijuana without patients needing to apply through Health Canada.
An injunction granted by a Federal Court judge in Vancouver has left the door open for people who are already growing their own medicinal marijuana to keep doing so, pending a future court ruling, even though new users will fall under the new regime.
Here are some of the issues at the heart of the debate.
Safety concerns
Health Canada says it’s worried the old system, in which medicinal marijuana growers were producing their own drug, posed health and safety risks. In a court filing for the B.C. case, Jeannine Ritchot, former director of medical marijuana reform, cited numerous concerns about health and safety threats posed by the production of cannabis in private dwellings. Fire and mould were two of the concerns listed, as well as violence, the presence of firearms, the illegal sale of marijuana and others.
John Conroy believes Health Canada’s concerns are not factually supported. Conroy is the B.C. lawyer who won the injunction against Health Canada’s ruling last month. “They haven’t been able to give us a single statistic of a single person who has had a mould problem in a medical grow,” Conroy said, adding that fire is another unfounded concern. “They had one, maybe two fires in medical grows in 13 years.”
Crime and abuse of the original regulations
Health Canada said law enforcement has raised concerns that the previous system is vulnerable to abuse, “including criminal involvement and diversion to the illicit market,” as a result of residential growing activities. In her affidavit, Ritchot includes a complaint from a B.C. district saying: “The extensive lack of regard and abuse of the (former) regulations makes a mockery of the federal government’s process, but more importantly presents a safety risk to neighbouring residents and businesses as well as emergency response officials.”
Conroy argued that individual abuses of the old regulations are not widely documented. Plus, he suggests another, ironic benefit: ““The irony is that this has contributed to a glut in the market so that the prices of cannabis are way down, and lots of illegal operations are shutting down and going out of business.”
Supply problems
With distribution of medicinal marijuana limited to a few large-scale licensed growers, Conroy argued that, for a period of time, medicinal marijuana will not be readily available. This, he said, will force patients to choose between their quality of life and the law, as some will turn to illegal sources for medicinal marijuana.
Todd Cain, a Health Canada employee, said in an affidavit that his role was to support the transition from the old system to the new one. In his affidavit, Cain lays out several of Health Canada’s strategies for maintaining a continuous supply of marijuana during the transition period. Cain said Health Canada was conducting an information campaign to encourage applications for production licenses under the latter set of regulations, and developing a strategy for triaging those applications. According to Cain, Health Canada has a supply of 400 to 500 kilograms of dried marijuana which, as of February, it had not drawn from. If this supply should run out, Cain said Health Canada had a plan in place to use imported marijuana. “Health Canada approved import from the Netherlands of over 100 kilograms of dried marijuana between January and May 2014,” Cain said.
Availability of large-scale commercial producers
Conroy said the emerging market of licensed medicinal marijuana producers isn’t large enough to meet the needs of patients.
“The evidence was, I think, (Health Canada) is getting 25 applicants a week. They’ve got a huge backlog of applicants, over 400 I think the figure was,” Conroy said. “But they’ve only approved 12 the last time I checked, and many of them aren’t able to supply yet.”
Sean Upton, a spokesman for Health Canada, said the total number of applicants is actually 600 as of March 25, with 12 approved. “There is no backlog,” Upton said. “Potential applicants to become a licensed producer must go through a rigorous application process. The processing time for MMPR applications can vary from a few months to several months.”
Cost savings
Even if commercial growers are eventually able to meet patients’ demands for medicinal marijuana, Conroy argues that many will not be able to afford their prices.
The lawyer says some measures are being taken to reduce the burden for patients, but there is no form of provincial coverage for marijuana prescriptions. In the end, Conroy argues, the most affordable way for patients to use medicinal marijuana is to grow it themselves.
“It’s $5 to $12, generally, per gram from licensed producers,” said Conroy. “The patients say that they’ve been able to produce (marijuana) for 50 cents to $3 a gram, which is lower than any licensed producer can do.”
Cain stated in his affidavit that 60 strains of medicinal marijuana would be available from licensed producers for $5 to $12 per gram, as stated by Conroy, but that some producers would offer discounts of $3 per gram for low income users.
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