Pubdate: Thu, 20 Dec 2012
Source: Maple Ridge Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc
Contact:  http://www.mrtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1372
Author: Maria Rantanen

POT KNOWLEDGE GROWS

Changes To Health Canada Regulations Will Move Legal Pot Growing Into
Specific Zones

A medical marijuana dispensary in Maple Ridge passes on information
about how to use pot to help manage medical conditions.

Michael Joinson, founder and president of The Always Growing Green
Society (TAGGS) medical marijuana dispensary in Maple Ridge, said the
society provides their members with a wide-range of information about
cannabis and he doesn't think Health Canada's proposed changes to pot
dispensing rules will allow those who use it for health reasons to get
the right kind of information.

Proposed new regulations announced Sunday remove Health Canada from
the application process, and instead require health-care practitioners
to write the equivalent of a prescription that must then be filled by
a licensed commercial producer.

Subsequently, producers will have to get licences to produce and sell
the marijuana in an appropriately zoned industrial or agricultural
area.

After the changes announced by Health Canada on Sunday, Joinson said
he doesn't think a licensed commercial producer would necessarily
provide the in-depth knowledge to help use cannabis as a medical
product, for example, whether it should be eaten, smoked, used
topically or as a tincture, and what different strains to use.

"Just because you are a gardener, it doesn't mean you know how to use
cannabis medically," Joinson said.

Much of the work they do at TAGGS is educating members of the society
on the difference between recreational use and medical use of
marijuana, and teaching them the proper way of using it medically.

"They don't just come to pick it [cannabis] up but because of the
knowledge," Joinson said. This information has come from years of
experience, he added.

People who use medical marijuana can be weaned off stronger
pharmaceuticals, Joinson said, for example, he was using morphine to
manage chronic back pain, but he doesn't any more because he has found
the right type of cannabis to use.

Joinson is unsure whether the marijuana dispensaries will take part in
the public consultation process announced by the minister.

"The feeling is they don't want to hear from us," he said, adding that
the society's biggest battle is the stigma surrounding marijuana.

As the president of a medical marijuana dispensary, "people will take
what I say with a grain of salt because of what I do," Joinson said.
But the members can attest to how cannabis is helping them, he added.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D