Pubdate: Mon, 22 Aug 2016
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Megan Gillis
Page: A3

STIRRING THE POT

Starting Wednesday, medical users can grow it - but will it
last?

They may call it weed, but what grows in Laurie MacEachern's plot is
more like the lush fields of corn near her rural home, southeast of
Ottawa, than the goldenrod and wild parsnip in the ditch.

"Welcome to my garden," she tells a rare recent visitor, surveying
rows of luxuriant green plants that will be ready to harvest next month.

In an area the size of a suburban backyard, the 57-year-old
grandmother grows enough medical cannabis to last her a year.

Her garden, tucked behind a locked gate with a motion-activated alarm
and floodlights, costs her about $300 a year. Buying what she needs
from a licensed producer would cost more than her entire $11,000 pension.

"I'm anxious to have people understand how easily it can be done,"
MacEachern said. "The licensed (medical marijuana) producers say it's
not like geraniums . ... No, it's more like tomatoes.

"I've been trying to prove a point. I have less than nothing and it
takes less than nothing to do this. This is going to be enough to keep
me healthy for a year."

MacEachern is among those jubilant to have regained ground in the
quickly shifting regulatory landscape of medical marijuana in Canada.

As of this Wednesday, new federal rules will allow authorized patients
to produce a "limited" amount of cannabis for their own use or to
designate someone to grow for them - instead of buying from corporate
producers.

It's the fruit of a Federal Court judge's ruling from February, which
said that a 2014 decision to force patients to buy their medicinal pot
from Health Canada licensed producers violated their constitutional
rights.

The federal government says the new regulations are only a stopgap to
comply with the court decision, but among the growing questions is
whether grow-your-own medical marijuana will survive legal pot.

Before MacEachern started using medical marijuana - on the advice of a
leading pain specialist - she says she took as many as 27 pills a day,
including OxyContin and Percocet, for a spinal injury, degenerative
nerve damage and irritable bowel syndrome. She still couldn't sleep,
so she drank, and the pain and pills left her unable to keep the
high-tech job she loved.

"Now I use nothing but cannabis," said MacEachern, co-founder of the
Medicinal Cannabis Patients' Alliance of Canada, who argues
medical-marijuana patients should not be "steamrollered over" or forgotten.

Health Canada will post details on how to register and legally buy
"starting materials" for growing marijuana - seeds and plants - when
the new regulations take effect.

But the government warned the new regulations are an "immediate
solution" to address the Federal Court decision in February. The
judge, who said many of the experts warning of mould, fire and black
market trade had an "almost religious fervour" against marijuana, gave
the government until this month to come up with new rules.

Meanwhile, 28,000 people could keep growing under an injunction.

"These regulatory changes should not be interpreted as being the
longer-term plan for the regulation of access to cannabis for medical
purposes, which is presently being determined as part of the
government's commitment to legalize, strictly regulate and restrict
access to marijuana," Health Canada said in a statement.

Public consultations by the government's legalization task force wrap
up Aug. 29.

Liberal MP and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who is handling
the file, was asked if people would be allowed to grow their own pot.

"Unlike tomatoes," he told the Toronto Star, marijuana poses
significant social and health risks to Canadians. The science is clear
it's "not a benign substance."

Despite this, medical marijuana has hit the mainstream, now recognized
as a treatment for patients with illnesses such as AIDS, those
undergoing cancer treatment and people with PTSD.

When Health Canada announced the new medical-cannabis regulations
earlier this month, the groups that spoke out to hail the change while
advocating for more access for patients included the Arthritis Society.

"As the federal government develops its approach to regulating
cannabis for recreational purposes, it is critical that the needs of
patients remain in focus," said president Janet Yale, who called for
tax-free status and insurance coverage for medical marijuana. She has
also asked the government to boost study of medical marijuana's use,
including establishing a centre of excellence for research.

Yale cited shared recommendations for new medical-cannabis regulations
with Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana.

The group's founder, Jonathan Zaid, was the first person in Canada to
get a private insurer to cover medical marijuana. He works to allow
others to do the same by persuading insurance firms it will save them
money.

He argues that being able to grow your own remains important for
patients.

"That's definitely a concern, in the initial announcement for the (new
regulations), Health Canada and the government was very clear, this is
just an interim regulation," Zaid said.

"Potentially, down the road, with the task force looking into how
they're going to legalize it for recreational purposes, this could
impact medical cannabis - not just home-growing, but access on the
whole."

Zaid wants the government to keep the needs of medical marijuana
patients in mind - which for those who can't afford the commercial
product or can't find the strains of pot that help them most, includes
home-growing. Some - such as MacEachern - say that growing the plant
that makes them feel better, even if it's just a few plants on a
balcony, is part of a therapeutic effect.

"You can grow your own tobacco, you can make your own wine and beer -
there are other some what controlled substances where you can produce
your own," Zaid said. "Where patients can't access the medicine that
they require, they have to be able to produce their own."

Many Canadians apparently agree.

A Forum Research poll found 56 per cent approved of the Federal Court
ruling striking down the ban on homegrown medical marijuana even as
Canadians are nearly split on whether legalized marijuana should
include "grow your own," with 48 per cent for and 42 per cent against.

Canopy Growth Corp., the company behind the marijuana-growing plant
Tweed in Smiths Falls, called the return of legal medical marijuana
growing good news for patients and "the 95 per cent of people who
don't abuse the privilege of growing at home."

However, while the company said it supports a patient's right to grow,
the "short-term initiative" with a broader overhaul on the horizon
isn't good policy. It pointed to the risk of diversion, abuse of plant
limits and hamstringing of law enforcement.

Medical-marijuana users are already ramping up to grow at home, like
one west-end Ottawa man in his 40s with once-disabling anxiety and a
sleep disorder.

Speaking anonymously, he said he used to take as many as six different
pills per day. With medical marijuana, he is able to fall asleep and
go to work every day - at a pharmaceutical company, perhaps ironically
- - without having panic attacks. "It's changed my life," he said. He
has outfitted his basement with new wiring, ventilation and LED grow
lights, but thinks he'll make back his money within two harvests
cultivated with the help of "old hippies." He currently spends $900 a
month with a licensed producer.

It will also mean being able to grow the strains that work best - the
producer is often sold out - and being able to grow for his elderly
father, who can't afford cannabis oil, which is under study as a
treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

"It's legal now - why not?" he said.

Not every medical-marijuana booster is so enthusiastic about
homegrown.

Francois Halle is a doctor and former army medic who serves as the
medical and science liaison for Marijuana for Trauma Inc., which helps
veterans with PTSD.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from cannabis is proven to work for PTSD,
blocking the pathways in the brain that telegraph terrifying
flashbacks, he said. Marijuana for Trauma is helping more than 4,000
clients at 11 "wellness centres" across the country and partnering
with researchers to share their data.

Halle fears homegrown cannabis, unlike the rigorously tested
commercial product, could be contaminated or have inconsistent levels
of the active ingredients, like cannabidiol, which helps people with
chronic pain, as opposed to THC.

It also sends a message that stands in the way of selling the
treatment to both the public and doctors, he believes.

"How can you make someone believe the science behind it by saying,
'Let's just grow it in our backyard?' " Halle said. "How will the
medical community be able to feel more comfortable prescribing
cannabis to their patients if they cannot even establish what they are
taking precisely?"

The government will now - for the first time - allow people to legally
submit homegrown marijuana to private labs for testing, which
advocates call a major step forward.

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[sidebar]

NEW RULES FOR HOMEGROWN PLANTS

As of Aug. 24, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations
(ACMPR) replace the 2013 Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations
(MMPR), which replaced the 2001 Marihuana Medical Access Regulations
(MMAR).

The new rules set out a framework for commercial production by
licensed producers, like the MMPR, but like the former MMAR, allows
patients to produce a "limited amount" for their own use or designate
someone to grow it for them.

The 34 licensed producers will be the only legal source of "starting
materials" - seeds and plants.

People who want to use medical cannabis still have to get a document
from an authorized health-care practitioner specifying a period of use
of up to one year and a daily quantity of marijuana in grams.

Authorized patients can then register to buy from a licensed producer
or with Health Canada to grow their own or have someone else grow for
them. That person - who can't have a drug offence on their record in
the past decade - can grow for a total of two people.

How much patients can grow and store is based on how much they're
prescribed, with every gram of dried marijuana prescribed translating
into five plants indoors or two outdoors.

Outdoor home-growers can't be adjacent to a school, public playground,
daycare or public place mainly frequented by children.

Law enforcement can continue to call a 24-hour number to verify that
marijuana is being grown legally.

Storefront dispensaries and compassion clubs are still illicit, says
Health Canada, noting they're "illegally supplied" and provide
unregulated products that "may be unsafe."

Health Canada suggests security measures for home growers including a
tall fence with a locking gate or alarm system outdoors, strong locks
on indoor areas where marijuana is produced or stored and childproof
storage.

The health agency also advises enough ventilation on indoor grows to
prevent mould on plants or the building, that electrical work be done
by licensed professionals and that pesticides be safe for plants to be
eaten or vaporized and that people talk to their health-care provider
about "the potential health risks associated with smoking or otherwise
consuming cannabis."

CANNABIS BY THE NUMBERS

Number of Canadians authorized as medical-marijuana users in
2002

29,888

Number of Canadians authorized in April 2013, with 67 per cent growing
their own and 16 per cent having someone else grow it for them

Nearly 70,000

Number of patients currently buying from 34 licensed
producers

28,000

Approximate number of patients allowed to grow their own under
regulations repealed in 2014, who could keep growing under a Federal
Court injunction

500,000

The minimum number of legal medical marijuana patients expected by
2020, according to a recent report by investment firm Mackie Research
Capital Corp.

The average daily "dosage," in grams, reported by medical marijuana
patients in 2013, which had continually increased since 2002,
especially among home growers

The percentage of home growers with 25 or more plants in 2013
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt