Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB) Copyright: 2013 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503 Author: Tessa Vanderhart WEEDED OUT New Medical Marijuana Rules Hurt Patients, Claims Licensed Home Grower A crackdown intended to keep medical marijuana out of the hands of crooks will mostly take it away from needy patients, says a Winnipeg grower. Steven Stairs says his homegrown remedy has helped treat his glaucoma so well that his ocular pressure is healthy and normal. He's licensed to grow his own medicine, and has been since 2009, but the federal government is phasing out the program in favour of having small businesses retail medical marijuana, at market rates. "So the government won't have anything to do with it," he notes. "But part of the new regulations is that they're eliminating patients' right to grow and that has serious consequences - financial, legal, and social." For one, the father of two says he's not sure how he'd pay street rate for pot, $10 a gram, when he's used to growing it for $1. "I don't have the financial means for that. I'm disabled, I barely work, I'm a student, I have two kids and a wife - on top of all the other, normal bills." Theft of the plants is one of the government's concerns, but Stairs says his safety system was never inspected. He was told by Health Canada that no personal-use growers were, due to a lack of staffing resources. "If they didn't inspect them for 12 years, how can they label them all fire hazards, mould hazards?" he asks. Stairs links a sharp increase in the number of medical marijuana users - from 5,600 in 2009 to more than 28,000 in 2013 - to the crackdown. In total, 18,053 are growing their own. There's also no legal place to buy weed yet, under the new rules. "They're forcing patients to go back into the hands of organized crime," he says. Stairs questions who the licensed providers will be, noting that few people - outside of the organized crime - have experience in large-scale production, though Health Canada clearly states it will provide no education on growing pot. But organized crime is already involved, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said when she released the changes earlier this month. "Current medical marihuana regulations have left the system open to abuse," the minister said. "We have heard real concerns from law enforcement, fire officials, and municipalities about how people are hiding behind these rules to conduct illegal activity, and putting health and safety of Canadians at risk. These changes will make it far more difficult for people to game the system." Stairs and hundreds of other Canadians are involved in a legal injunction to stop the change, represented by constitutional lawyer John W. Conroy and funded partly through donation boxes Stairs is leaving at pot-friendly stores around Winnipeg. A class-action lawsuit could follow if the injunction fails. As Stairs notes, they're not looking for the entirety of the new legislation to be repealed - just the personal-growing allowance. "They could circumvent this whole issue by letting people who have the right to grow, to grow." - --------------------------- [sidebar] Other reactions to the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR): Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Anna Reid said that the new medical marijuana legislation is short-sighted - not because doctors want more medical marijuana, necessarily, but because they want more research into its efficacy and more regulation of its use. "The use of medical marijuana has grown because there aren't better treatments for people battling chronic pain. This is an area that definitely needs greater attention. The federal government will not help address this lack by abdicating its responsibility to protect the health of Canadians," she said in a release. The Medical Cannabis Access Society (MCAS), a non-profit dispensary based in Montreal, agrees. "It is a crime policy masquerading as health policy," said executive director Adam Greenblatt. "The pretext of protecting public safety is being grossly exaggerated and unfairly paints all patients as criminals." On Monday, Toronto-based marijuana advocate Sam Mellace will sign his federal application to become Canada's first licensed medical marijuana producer under Health Canada's new regulations. New rules at a glance: Licenced producers will grow marijuana under the following conditions: Indoors, or in physically secure greenhouses product shipped directly to clients, or physicians dried marijuana only, no oils or edibles producers set their own prices with starting materials from Health Canada, or a personal-use (or designated grower) licence holder, or importation A patient's Authorization to Purchase (a pink, legal-sized piece of paper, which Stairs carries with him) will become invalid on March 31, 2014. Patients will then be sold marijuana with a label on it, or with a document in the shipping package, that gives authority to possess. Doctors will prescribe it in the same way. There are no limit amounts on prescriptions. Source: Health Canada - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom