Pubdate: Fri, 07 Dec 2012
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Emily Jackson

MAKING MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES BORING (EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE KIND
OF ILLEGAL)

Imagine you have cancer. Your doctor prescribes marijuana to relieve
your pain.

For those who don't want to smoke the dried government bud or grow the
plant, medical cannabis dispensaries make marijuana accessible in
other forms such as baked goods, said Rielle Capler, a co-ordinator of
a UBC Peter Wall Solutions Initiative project to certify
dispensaries.

But dispensaries aren't exactly legal or well understood.

In an effort to legitimize what they do in the eyes of patients,
physicians, lawmakers and the public, the Canadian Association of
Medical Cannabis Dispensaries teamed up with the UBC researchers to
create a certification program.

"We want to make cannabis boring," Capler said. "That's what running a
dispensary is like - it's not some crazy thing, it's running a
business. It's very administrative."

The team spent a year meeting with dispensaries across the country to
come up with an exhaustive list of rules. In 2013, it will begin the
certification process and hopes each of Canada's 37 dispensaries will
vie for a stamp of approval.

And the standards are, well, yawn-inducing.

They cover nitty-gritty details including how to confirm a person's
illness, where the marijuana supply comes from, how to label a product
and how to train employees.

The process is like any professional organization, say of dental
hygienists or pharmacists, but with one catch - it's in a "legal grey
zone," Capler said.

Under Health Canada medical marijuana regulations, which will be
updated in the next month, patients must grow their own weed,
designate a grower or buy from the government's one supplier.

Dispensaries are technically illegal, but a number of B.C. Supreme
Court cases have supported them by dubbing Health Canada's regulations
unconstitutional.

The goal of certification isn't to legalize the drug, but to provide
the best, standardized care, said Jamie Shaw of the BC Compassion Club
Society, an 8,500-member dispensary and wellness centre on Vancouver's
Commercial Drive.

Patients will know certified dispensaries have nothing to do with
organized crime and be able to trust the quality of the cannabis, she
said.

Certification will also reduce the stigma of medical marijuana use,
she said.

It's not a bunch of kids looking to score some weed - many of the
members streaming into the clinic Thursday needed pain relief from
conditions such as HIV/AIDS, cancer and MS.

"They're older and might have tried smoking once as a teenager," Shaw
said. "They come in when they doctor says, 'Maybe you should try cannabis.'"

The prices are also rock bottom compared to pharmaceuticals, so the
dispensary also serves low-income people, she said.

"One thing I hear again and again is the difference this makes in
patients lives."

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One-stop cannabis shopping.

'It really has made a big difference in my life"

Vancouver resident Teresa needed 20 pills a day to function and dull
her chronic pain from fibromyalgia, hip replacements and arthritis.
But after 10 years of holistic therapy and cannabis use at the B.C.
Compassion Club Society, Teresa, 54, is down to just three pills a
day.

"It really has made a big difference in my life," she said on Thursday
at the wellness centre. "It helps me to function, it helps me to
appreciate life."

Teresa, who works with animals, is one of more than 30,000 Canadians
who use medical marijuana dispensaries, despite their ambiguous legal
status, says the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis
Dispensaries. And with the imminent release of Health Canada's updated
medical-marijuana regulations, it's people like Teresa who will be
caught in the regulatory framework.

She wouldn't give her last name because of the stigma associated with
medical-marijuana use - even her family doesn't know she sometimes
takes a bite of a cannabis cookie or a puff from a vapourizer to help
her sleep. "I know there's legal problems because some people get it
to use as a drug, but nothing else really helped," she said.

She praised the dispensary, where she gets counselling, acupuncture
and cannabis for low prices from attentive staff. (An acupuncture
session costs as little as $5.)

She prefers the natural remedies and her doctor supports her cannabis
use.

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What happens at a medical marijuana dispensary?

Step 1: Apply for a membership. People need a form signed by a doctor
to get service.

Step 2: Take a number and wait. It's exactly like a pharmacy or a
doctor's office, complete with stacks of magazines.

Step 3: Get the cannabis. A sign broadcasts the menu and a staff
member doles out the person's choice in a private booth.
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MAP posted-by: Matt