Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Source: Coast Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Coast Reporter
Contact:  http://www.coastreporter.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/580
Author: John Gleeson

MEDICAL POT CHANGES COME UNDER FIRE

The Sunshine Coast will be part of a nation-wide protest next Thursday
against the federal government's proposed new medical marijuana
regulations.

The regulations, set to take effect in just over a year, would end the
current system that allows licensed patients or their designates to
grow medical marijuana, replacing it with a prescription-based system
that would shift all production to private companies operating under
contract to Health Canada.

Spearheaded by the International Hempology 101 Society, the Feb. 21
nation-wide day of protest will target constituency offices of
Conservative members of Parliament, including West Vancouver -
Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky Country MP John Weston. A rally is planned
for 11 a.m. outside Weston's Sechelt office at 5760 Teredo St. in
Trail Bay Mall.

"Bring a sign, come educate others, or come and be educated," said
Eric Bills of Halfmoon Bay, who is supporting the day of protest.

The protest was timed to take place with a week left until Health
Canada's Feb. 28 deadline for public comments on the proposed changes.

Bills, a lawyer from the U.S. who said he saw firsthand how the war on
drugs was a failure, quoted Health Canada numbers that peg the cost
for patients growing their own marijuana at between $1 and $2 per gram.

The cost per gram under the proposed commercial system will rise to
$8.80.

"That's a huge increase for these people who often have AIDS, cancer
or some other serious illness that keeps them from working," Bills
said. "So now you're going to quadruple the price. It'll just create
more illegal activity and bring in more organized crime."

The new system, he said, will also make it cost-prohibitive for
patients to buy larger quantities to produce healthier edible products
and avoid smoking the dried plant.

Patients or their designates who defy the new law and continue
growing, he added, if caught would be facing possible mandatory
minimum jail sentences.

Under the proposed new system, patients would be required to obtain a
prescription from a doctor, but Health Canada has left it up to
provinces and territories to decide whether nurse practitioners or
pharmacists could also prescribe.

Asked if the B.C. government was considering those options, a
spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said it was too early to say.

"We are currently working with Health Canada to better understand the
implications of what the proposed changes will mean for B.C.,"
communications officer Laura Neufeld said. "We do have some concerns
and questions at this point on what these changes will mean for
physicians and other health professionals, on the potential cost to
our provincial health system, and the potential implications for
low-income licence holders, and we are working with Health Canada to
address them."

Since the proposed changes are not scheduled to take effect until
March 31, 2014, Neufeld added, the province "will have time to
continue to work with Health Canada to ensure our concerns and
questions are resolved, and to support an effective
transition."

On Dec. 16, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced the
proposed changes, saying the current regulations leave the system open
to abuse.

"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," Aglukkaq said in a news release.

One of the intents of the new regulations is to eliminate the
production of marijuana in people's homes, lowering the fire and
security risks for neighbourhoods, she said. Approved grow operations
will also have to adhere to municipal zoning laws.

While currently designated growers have the opportunity to apply to
become contracted suppliers, the costs of rezoning and meeting Health
Canada's security requirements "are going to be prohibitive for a lot
of people," Bills said. "It's not nearly as good as people making
reasonable decisions for their own needs."

Ottawa will stop producing and distributing marijuana if the changes
go ahead, and while the cost will go up from the subsidized $5 per
gram for patients who now access government pot, there will at least
be more strains for them to choose from, Bills said.

Marijuana advocates are not the only ones opposing the new
regulations. Both the Canadian Medical Association, representing
Canada's 76,000 doctors, and the Canadian Pharmacists Association have
publicly criticized the government's approach.

The proposed changes come at a time when medical marijuana
authorizations have skyrocketed across the country.

Last year the number of licensed medical marijuana patients in Canada
more than doubled from the previous year to 28,115, with almost half
of authorized users - 13,362 - residing in B.C.

As of December, B.C. residents also accounted for about two-thirds of
the designated growers under the federal program - 2,232 out of 3,405.

Comments to Health Canada can be sent by fax to 613-941-7240, by email 
to  or by mail to Bureau of Medical 
Marihuana Regulatory Reform, Controlled Substances and Tobacco 
Directorate, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health 
Canada, Address Locator: AL3503D Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9.
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MAP posted-by: Matt