Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jul 2016
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Brian Cross
Page: A1

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LANDSCAPE DESCRIBED AS THE WILD WEST

Dr. Christopher Blue sees it "all the time," the senior with a serious
condition like prostate cancer who has bought medical marijuana from
some seemingly legitimate source, and is seeking a prescription for
it.

"What they're in possession of is illegal," says the Windsor family
doctor. One of the few local physicians writing prescriptions for
medical marijuana, he is concerned about the public confusion over how
the system works. Patients are sometimes shocked to learn they're
breaking the law, he says.

Sometimes acting on bad advice, or because their doctor doesn't
prescribe marijuana and they've had to forge out on their own to find
a source, they've purchased the product from a storefront dispensary,
an online source or someone who grows their own. What they buy is
packaged to look like serious, medical-quality stuff.

"These people have no criminal record, they're no different from your
parents or my parents, and they are thinking they're doing something
correctly to help their disease or cancer," said Blue, who believes
that cannabis can "absolutely" help a lot of patients, particularly as
an alternative to highly addictive and dangerous opioid painkillers
whose use have reached epidemic proportions in Ontario. But he wants
people to go the legal route.

"The only way I can prescribe cannabis is through a licensed
producer," he said, referring to the companies (19 in Ontario)
approved and licensed by Health Canada to supply medical marijuana. "I
have to tell (patients) that any cannabis product that is obtained
outside a licensed producer is illegal and illicit and I don't want to
be part of it." The current situation was described by one local
observer as the Wild West.

There's a lot of confusion in the industry, agrees Ronan Levy, the
director and general counsel for Canadian Cannabis Clinics, which
since opening a location on Turner Road in Windsor last September has
seen more than 1,000 local patients seeking medical marijuana. He said
many people think they can buy marijuana at the clinic. What the
clinic does is take referrals from local doctors, set up an
appointment with a clinic doctor, go through all the paperwork
required to show the patient has a condition that medical marijuana
can help and that he's already tried conventional treatments. Then the
clinic doctor meets with the patient and if it's warranted, provides a
prescription that goes directly to one of the licensed providers. The
package is delivered to the patient's home.

Levy said the public does not understand the difference between
clinics like his and a dispensary, which many people believe are
legally allowed to sell medical marijuana. A few months ago, police in
Toronto raided a number of dispensaries, but many reopened within
days. So there's a misperception that the medical marijuana system is
wide open, he said.

The second-largest licensed producer in Canada, Leamington-based
Aphria, recently announced the start of a $10-million expansion that
will more than double its greenhouse space (from 43,000 square feet to
100,000) and its sales (from more than 2,600 kilograms annually to
6,000 projected once the approvals arrive and the product it ready
next year).

The expansion is needed to cope with "significantly" rising demand,
said CFO Carl Merton.

"We believe we'll be sold out of our product come February or March if
we didn't do this expansion," he said. "Every month, we'd be selling
more than we're producing."

But while sales are growing, there's still a large number of people
going the illegal route for medical marijuana, said Merton, who said
he's heard that for every gram sold legally in Canada, there are six
grams sold out of Vancouver dispensaries.

"Are there a couple of extra steps, do you have to actually go see a
doctor and get a medical document? Yes, absolutely," Merton said of
the legal route. He said while Aphria obviously has an interest in
increasing the number of people who go the legal route, he also
believes people don't want to break the law.

"A lot of people, once they're told they're doing it illegally, are
very upset because they thought they were doing it legally," he said.
"That's kind of our nature as Canadians, we're not out to necessarily
break the law."

Currently, the medical marijuana market is probably worth $150 million
to $200 million, Merton said. But there are projections showing that
by 2024 that market will be $1.3 billion. As well, if the Liberal
government goes forward with plans to legalize recreational use, that
market would amount to $2 billion to $3 billion within two years,
growing to $5 billion in five years.

Everyone in the industry is waiting for Aug. 24, the deadline a judge
gave the federal government to come up with new changes to its medical
marijuana regulations to make access easier and more affordable. Those
changes could include rules to allow people to grow their own, but
until then the only people who can are those who had licences to grow
for themselves or someone else, under older regulations. Patients who
have been approved for medical marijuana since new regulations were
adopted in 2014 aren't allowed to grow their own and have to get it
from a licensed producer.

All these evolving rules make it confusing for people to understand
what's legal and what's not.

"A lot of people come and talk to me, they figure I'm going to
(provide them with marijuana), but no," said Jack Kungel, a Kingsville
man who credits cannabis with rescuing him from terminal cancer and
years of miserable poor health brought on by a major workplace injury,
diabetes, overweight and being on more than 22 medications. Today, at
age 64, he said he's the healthiest he's been in his life. Because
he's grandfathered under the old regulations, he said he's allowed to
grow his own, and for a woman with MS he's been helping for 14 years.

While he can't sell or supply others, he said he helps with tips on
the right strains to order from the licensed producers for their
particular condition, and advice on converting the product into
products like cookies, oils and even suppositories that don't get you
high.

"What it's allowed me to do is function," Kungel said, describing the
decades-long efforts to make it illegal the biggest lie on the planet.
"It's medicine," he said.

In Windsor, there are currently no dispensaries, but many people
seeking medical marijuana are getting it from black market suppliers,
according to marijuana advocate Jon Liedtke, who earlier this year
opened Higher Limits, a medical marijuana lounge on Ouellette Avenue.
He said "every day" he gets people coming in thinking they can buy
medical marijuana there.
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