Pubdate: Thu, 05 Feb 2015
Source: Coast, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2015 Coast Publishing
Contact:  http://www.thecoast.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3170
Author: Hilary Beaumont
Pages: 5-6

POT PROMOS GET NIPPED IN THE BUD BY HEALTH CANADA

Selling marijuana just got more difficult.

Haligonians who buy their pot legally probably noticed changes to 
their dealers' websites last month. On January 12, it became more 
difficult for medical marijuana users to figure out what they're 
inhaling, extracting or otherwise consuming.

Over the last year or so, Health Canada has cracked the whip on these 
private companies' advertisements, telling them to comply with 
federal guidelines by January 12 or risk losing their licenses. 
Health Canada takes issue with any information on a medical pot 
website that crosses the line into promotional material, or asserts 
health claims without evidence.

Those lines aren't crystal clear, though, according to two of 
Canada's 16 licensed producers that sell directly to customers.

Nova Scotia doesn't have any legal dispensaries yet. A few local 
companies are awaiting approval, but right now licensed Nova Scotians 
buy their weed online from big box sellers, mostly in Ontario and 
British Columbia.

Tweed, an Ontario cannabis producer that sells medical weed to 
patients in Nova Scotia, used to tell patients what their different 
strains smelled and tasted like, and which were best for specific 
ailments-chronic pain, for example. All that information is gone from 
their website now, says Tweed vice-president Mark Zekulin, and Health 
Canada seems happy.

"They've taken our name off the non-compliance list, so I 
reverse-infer that yes, they have told us we're in the clear," he 
says with a chuckle.

They can tell customers what THC and CBD are good for, based on 
medical research and studies, but when it comes to a specific 
product, he recommends that customers order five grams each of a few 
strains to see what best treats their symptoms. Any recommendation 
from Tweed's call centre about specific strains will come with the 
big disclaimer that everyone is different and it's not medical advice.

Tweed has put together some information their call centre can give to 
customers, but they can't say anything that could be viewed as a 
"medical claim," including giving out anecdotal information.

It's more difficult to draw the line on non-medical information, 
including how the product tastes or smells. "There will always be 
some area of question between, you know, is this informational or is 
this promotional, and the regulator can't predict every one of those 
situations," Zekulin says.

Medreleaf is an Ontario dealer that mails pot in discreet packaging. 
To comply with Health Canada's advertising guidelines, CEO Neil 
Closner says Medreleaf removed all photos of plants and buds from 
their public website, all text that spoke to the quality of their 
product and all anecdotal information about which strains might work 
for certain ailments. They also had to quit linking to external 
cannabis sites on social media. "For patients of ours, once they've 
been registered, they can have access to a little bit more 
information including pictures," Closner says. "We've heard from some 
of those people and they're not happy, but this is a new regime, and 
we're all trying to find the right balance."

But after adapting to Health Canada's guidelines, Medreleaf heard 
"pointed" criticism from prospective customers who are surfing the 
various legal pot websites trying to pick a supplier.

"They are the ones who are in many cases lacking sufficient 
information," Closner says. "We simply explain that we're abiding by 
the regulations, and there's not much we can do."

One of Medreleaf's customers, Emily (who only wanted her first name 
used) logged in recently and realized the information she needed was 
missing from their site.

Emily is a new mother who uses medical cannabis to treat her 
postpartum depression, anxiety and ADHD. Because she has a handful of 
ailments, she is trying a number of strains to figure out what works 
best for her. The Medreleaf site previously included anecdotal 
information about which strains might be best for ADHD, but now that 
information is gone. "They used to have a lot more information and 
now it's just a couple lines," she says, looking at the website. "I 
swear I remember pictures of the flowers, or the plants. ... They 
took out all the smells and tastes too."

The smell and taste aren't important to her, but she wants to know 
how it will affect her before she orders it. Otherwise, "that's a lot 
of money."

Federal guidelines including the latest advertising crack down are 
discouraging some licensed users from going the legal route, 
according to a few licensed patients who spoke to The Coast off the record.

Greg Chaisson, a Nova Scotian who uses medical pot for his colitis 
(bowel inflammation similar to Crohn's) previously bought from a 
legal producer, but says he was put off by the lack of information 
about what he was smoking, and the producer's inability to meet demand.

He buys pot with high myrcene levels because it's been shown to 
reduce inflammation in rats. The producer was unable to give him 
information about myrcene levels, so he experimented with different 
strains, which made the process "an expensive guessing game," he says.

He began buying his weed from a non-licensed grower out in BC, where 
business is booming in the "grey" market.

Closner of Medreleaf believes the ad restrictions put companies like 
his at a disadvantage when competing with "grey area" producers.

"Grey market producers frankly have a lot of advantages over the 
licensed producers, which creates quite a concern to all of us," he 
says. "They are clearly not held anywhere near to the same standards."

Zekulin of Tweed decided to spin those standards to his company's 
advantage. They can't promote their product, so Tweed re-launched 
their website to focus on quality standards and customer trust.

Zekulin and Closner say there's ongoing dialogue between licensed 
producers and the federal government.

"What we hope to achieve is better mutual understanding of each 
other's challenges so that we can streamline the process," Closner 
says. "If we can work with them to make their lives easier and ours 
easier, then we all win and ultimately the patients win."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom