Pubdate: Wed, 23 Apr 2014
Source: Salmon Arm Observer (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Salmon Arm Observer
Contact:  http://www.saobserver.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1407

POT GROWERS IN LIMBO

For Diana Altschul, the issue of small medicinal marijuana growers
possibly being shut down is not a theoretical one - it's one that
would affect her life in a big way.

Altschul acquired a licence to grow marijuana in 2008, when her spouse
was dealing with the effects of cancer and she was living with chronic
pain from a hit and run that broke her back and shattered her foot.

The licence was renewed each year and, after her partner died and she
had to move to low-cost housing, it was transferred to a designated
grower.

"To legitimately find a legitimate honourable person to cultivate your
number of plants is very hard to come by," she says, noting she grew
about 25 plants per year that produced about four pounds of pot.

"I make a lot of it into a butter; it's quite economical," Altschul
says, noting it allows her to eat, sleep and fight depression.

"I am a certified herbalist, I didn't want to associate with the black
market," she says, noting that she had developed designer strains to
knock out chronic pain and nausea, and was working on depression.

Altschul competed in the 2013 Launch-A-Preneur program where her plan
for a business, Trans-Herbalcooks, which would produce hemp and
cannabis products for medicinal uses, earned fourth place out of 17
teams.

"I have tried to cultivate my own medical cannabis because it's so
beneficial to me. I'm resentful and taking this quite personally," she
said in March of the federal government's new Marihuana for Medical
Purposes Regulations, initially set to come into effect April 1, that
would have allowed only large commercial operations, and no
personal-use production licences, to grow medicinal marijuana. Small
growers who didn't destroy their plants and seeds and dismantle their
grow-ops would be breaking the law.

Since then there has been an about-face, due to a legal challenge to
the regulation. A Federal Court judge ruled on March 21 that anyone
already licensed to grow marijuana may continue to do so, until a
legal challenge goes to trial. Altschul is part of that class-action
suit.

Altschul noticed room for improvement in the application process from
day one.

She thinks small growers of medicinal pot should have been required to
have the authorization of a specialist, not simply a general
practitioner, before being provided a licence, a stipulation she
believes would have eliminated those who were doing it for monetary
gain.

"That would have ruled out a lot of the gangs and criminal element...
That's what ruined it," she says.

She's concerned she won't be able to afford marijuana produced by
large operations.

When the Observer asked Health Canada about the proposed change to
allow only large growers, a return email stated that the previous
system was open to abuse.

"The risks of diversion to the illegal market will be significantly
reduced," it stated, adding that mould and electrical hazards would
also decrease.

It emphasized that Health Canada doesn't support marijuana as
medicine.

"Marijuana has not gone through the scientific and safety review
process required for pharmaceutical drugs. Smoking marijuana has not
been approved or endorsed by Health Canada as a medical treatment." 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D